Hydrogen Consultation

GRTgaz and Teréga received more than 130 responses to the consultation questionnaire. In addition, actors in the hydrogen market requested nearly 60 two-way exchanges to go further into the details of their vision for the development of a hydrogen market, their H₂ transport and decarbonisation needs, and their expectations of gas transporters.

• Those industries who are big energy consumers and CO₂ emitters responded in large numbers. They accounted for nearly 50% of responses to the questionnaire.
• Energy shippers, suppliers, traders, producers and storage operators made up 23% of respondents.
• Local authorities (regional, inter-commune cooperation establishments etc.) made up 11% of respondents.

• The consultation allowed us to identify nearly 90 potential production and/or consumption sites across the whole French national territory.

• For actors in the market, financial competitiveness is the key factor for success in developing H₂ as an energy carrier. That competitiveness is the main criterion for industry when deciding to decarbonise by turning to this energy carrier. An important element is the cost of producing H₂, but transport costs and the price of CO₂ quotas also play their part.

• Consumers are particularly focussed on the security and diversity of supply. 

• Actors clearly foresee a staged development of the market: the roll-out of H2 as an energy carrier starting with local ecosystems, then hydrogen valleys, linking local ecosystems via a regional pipeline transport system, leading eventually to the structuring of a pan-European interconnected pipeline transport grid, incorporating storage infrastructures.

• The market’s response broadly confirms the geographical production and/or consumption areas as originally identified in the European Hydrogen Backbone report (see map below).

• Industry also has a high level of interest in the CO₂ market. Nearly 50% of industrial actors see the capture, storage and/or repurposing of CO₂ as a solution for decarbonising their businesses, and are pushing for a CO2 market consultation, for coordinated planning of dedicated infrastructure.

To look further into the problems of CO₂ raised by respondents in the consultation, GRTgaz plans to hold the first regional workshops on the theme of CO2 - H2 complementarities in November 2021. That process will be rolled out to other regions by GRTgaz and Teréga in 2022.

Based on the in-depth analysis of responses to the consultation, the findings drawn from the regional workshops and two-way exchanges with actors in the hydrogen market, early in 2022, GRTgaz and Teréga will present a consolidated joint vision of the future low-carbon and renewable H2 market.