The electric car accelerates. But another revolution is already looming, that ofgreen hydrogen. And as happens with lithium batteries, the road passes through the far north. During the week, Nel Hydrogen Electrolyser, a division of the Norwegian group Nel ASA, announced that it has started a collaboration with various partners (Ovako, Volvo, Hitachi ABB and H2 Green Steel) to build a plant in Hofors, Sweden, for the green hydrogen production i.e. generated without using fossil fuels. If the times are respected, the plant is expected to be activated by the end of 2022: the hydrogen produced will be used for Ovako's (steel) rolling mills with the aim of reduce fossil energy by 2030. The technical solution will also enable the large-scale production of hydrogen for applications such as freight transport.
Revolutions need money. But the financial markets are already responding to the call. On 17 June, it successfully debuted on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange Green Hydrogen Systems, a company that develops and manufactures electrolysis systems. The company wants to offer green hydrogen solutions to manufacturers of filling stations, power-to-X installations, industrial plants and other sensitive sectors. The IPO closed a week early at the highs of the range. The stock today trades at 49 Danish kroner, about 20% above the offer price.
It was no different in Paris. The offer on the freshman Euronext scoreboards Hydrogene de France it closed with the subscription of securities for 152 million euros, more than the initial offer of 100 million. Among the most interested spectators, the giant Airbus which is already being studied a “zero emission” aircraft for the future and is already in talks with Aéroport de Paris and Air Liquide for the production and distribution of gas in the airports. A complex operation, because hydrogen occupies four times more volume than kerosene and must be stored at -253 degrees in huge deposits.
But, in times of exceptional technological progress (and investments), everything seems possible when governments and multinationals enter the field. Also on the car front, while engaged in the challenge of electrification. On the four-wheel front, the technological leadership belongs, as usual, to the Asians. Toyota, who has never hidden his doubts about the medium-long term prospects of the all-electric car, concentrating his efforts on the hybrid, was the first to realize the hydrogen prototype. At the end of May, the new Mirai already demonstrated its qualities by covering 1.003 kilometers with a single tank of green hydrogen.
No less ecological the Hiunday Nexo, even capable of cleaning the air along the way from the equivalent of fine particles emitted by two diesel cars. Over the next decade, the Korean giant intends to invest just under 7 billion euros in fuel cell technology, also pushing on production, which will rise to 700.000 units. And among the 18 new zero-emission models that the Korean giant intends to launch by 2025, a first mass-produced vehicle powered by hydrogen. A strategy also shared by the Big names in German cars, according to what the CEO of BMW Italy, Massimiliano De Silvestre recently said. “We are electrifying everything but we believe a lot in hydrogen” – he said – “at the end of 2021 our estimate is to sell 1 million electrified cars in the world. Today we make cars and then transform them into electric ones, from 2025 we will change the paradigm: cars will be born as electric and will become something else".
In short, in the eyes of insiders and the financial markets, hydrogen is proving to be one of the most important new energy vectors for a truly sustainable future, in which greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by avoiding "electrical" problems. But it will be a long, expensive and complicated challenge. Without forgetting that there is hydrogen and hydrogen. Most of the hydrogen produced in the world is generated today with industrial processes or as a by-product of petroleum refining and chemical industry processes. It is the so-called "grey" hydrogen, 95% of the hydrogen produced today, which produces no environmental benefits. Also blue hydrogen derives from natural gas, but the production plant is coupled with a permanent capture and storage system for the CO2 produced in the process. In this way, hydrogen can be generated without emissions harmful to the climate.
THEgreen hydrogenfinally, it is generated by exploiting the electricity produced by solar energy, wind power plants or other renewable sources. The electricity produced in excess that is not used feeds electrolytic cells that produce hydrogen and oxygen from water. In this way it does not emit CO2. The efforts of the European Union and of individual countries are concentrated precisely on the production of green hydrogen, starting with Germany which has allocated nine billion euros to the challenge.
Ma Italy is not watching. “In addition to renewable energy sources and batteries for storage – reads a report by Intesa Sanpaolo – another undisputed protagonist of projects linked to the energy transition is certainly hydrogen, for which the PNRR forecasts around 3 and a half billion euros, between incentives for research and development, production and use”. “The big players in the energy sector are very involved (Snam, Eni, Enel, A2A, Edison, Italgas) but also other manufacturing, research and public administration entities”. Not just big. On the contrary, hydrogen has what it takes to create opportunities for specialization also for the manufacturing fabric of small and medium enterprises, creating a real hydrogen supply chain. Already today there are approx 220 patents, mainly relating to components for the storage and distribution of hydrogen (including fuel cells) but also to electrolytic cells for production. Among these patents, 117 were filed by joint stock companies, for a total of 66 companies identified. Intesa Sanpaolo has surveyed 133 companies taking into account all the realities, not only manufacturing but in the field of research and development, which are approaching hydrogen.
The turnover produced by the companies in the sample is, in 2019, equal to approx 85 billion euros for a total of over 130 employees. This result is largely influenced by the presence of 17 very large companies (with turnover exceeding 500 million euros). These are some big players in the energy, construction and manufacturing sectors. But even the little ones participate in the challenge. If large companies are eliminated, the total turnover at the end of 2019 is equal to 7 billion euros and the employees to 19.160. Numbers destined to grow very rapidly thanks to the proliferation of micro enterprises (with less than 2 million in turnover), which represent more than a quarter of the sample. These are mainly small active companies in research and development and engineering consultancy which operate on the technological frontier and are highly innovative: in fact, 65% of these are included in the sample precisely because they have already filed patents related to hydrogen technologies. I am also very young companiesi, with a median age of 9 years against 21 for the total sample worth betting on. Even through the birth of a real one Hydrogen Valley which represents one of the most tempting opportunities to make adequate use of European funds by promoting the internal development of technologies that stimulate employment and growth in the area.
