Expectations for EU hydrogen targets are too high, says EDP CEO

Sergio Goncalves

LISBON (Reuters) – European Union targets for green hydrogen production by 2030 are overstated and unrealistic, the chief executive of Portugal’s EDP said on Tuesday, citing regulatory uncertainty and slow progress so far.

The EU wants to produce 10 million tonnes of green hydrogen, which is produced using renewable energy, and import another 10 million by 2030. Current production through electrolysis is less than 300,000 tonnes.

To achieve these goals, huge investments will be needed to expand Europe’s small fleet of electrolyzers and install 150-210 GW of new renewable energy sources to power them.

In a speech at a conference organized by the Expresso newspaper, Miguel Stilwell said that the 2030 targets were unrealistic because “it will take time to scale up this new technology.”

“There are inflated expectations for hydrogen, a lot of the targets are unrealistic,” Stilwell said. “We see 100-megawatt (MW) projects coming online in 2026 or 2027, but we’re still a long way from gigawatt projects.”

Electrolysis – a key technology for producing renewable hydrogen – remains less competitive than alternative fossil fuels such as natural gas, which hinders its technological and market development.

The president stated that financing rules and other regulations, key to accelerating technological development, have not yet been developed, which causes uncertainty.

“However, the truth is that EDP is investing in green hydrogen,” he said.

EDP ​​has started a pilot project in Brazil and, together with Portuguese oil and gas company Galp Energia, plans to launch a hydrogen plant in Sines, south of Lisbon.

Last week, Portugal more than doubled its 2030 targets for installed electrolyzer capacity to produce green hydrogen to 5.5 GW by 2030.

(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; Editing by Andrei Khalip and David Gregorio)