International Hydrogen Day Berlin, February 24th 2005

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International Hydrogen DayBerlin, February 24th
2005

• Sustainable Mobility and Hydrogen
• Hans Larsen, Head of Department
• Chairman, Management and Policy Committee
• UNEP Risoe Centre on Energy, Climate and
  Sustainable Development

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International Hydrogen DayBerlin, February 24th
2005

• Sustainable Mobility and Hydrogen
• In a world facing growing environmental problems
  and diminishing oil reserves, hydrogen is one of
  the most likely long-term options, especially for
  transportation
• Klaus Toepfer

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Why Hydrogen?

• Opportunity for a sustainable energy system
• Security of supply
• Climate change
• Alternative fuel for the transport sector
• New link between transport and other parts of the
  energy sector

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Hydrogen is valuable today

• Energy carrier not energy source
• Manufactured on the basis of natural gas
• Utilized in refineries and chemical industry
• The hydrogen economy is technically feasible
  the decisive factor is cost

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BMW H2 ICE car in the Munich Airport
Spacecraft have long been fuelled by hydrogen
The demonstration project ECTOS/CUTE Clean
Urban Transport for Europe
The Utsira Hydrogen-Wind demonstration project
Hydrogen FC bus in Reykjavik
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Rapidly growing interest in the hydrogen economy

• Full speed ahead in EU, USA and Japan
• Need for cooperation between research
  institutions and business
• Need for political support
• What about Developing Countries?

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Significant growth in number of projects

• Bushs Freedom car initiative announced in
  February 2002
• The European hydrogen vision report presented in
  Brussels in June 2003
• The International Partnership for the Hydrogen
  Economy founded in November 2003

• The Quick-start hydrogen programmes of the EU
  Growth Initiative announced in November 2003
• The European Platform for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell
  Technologies launched in January 2004

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Hydrogen could be the missing link

• Hydrogen could link the power system to the
  transport sector, increasing the flexibility and
  robustness of the total energy system
• The choice of hydrogen production technology and
  energy source determines the sustainability of
  the hydrogen economy

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Driving forces

• Increased use of renewable energy in the
  transport sector
• Use in the transport sector can reduce local and
  global pollution
• The robustness and flexibility of the energy
  system will be increased

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Driving forces

• The development of fuel cells and a hydrogen
  economy will provide new market opportunities
• Fuel cells for battery replacement and backup
  power systems are niche markets in which price
  and efficiency are relatively unimportant

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Barriers

• Technological breakthroughs are necessary
• Not yet a competitive and cost-effective
  technology

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Barriers

• Need for
• Competitive and economic production of hydrogen
• Better storage methods
• Lower prices for fuel cells
• Infrastructure for the transport sector

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Environment

• Present knowledge indicates that hydrogen as an
  energy carrier will involve little environmental
  risk
• Atmospheric hydrogen concentrations should be
  carefully monitored

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Environment

• Research should be carried out to obtain a better
  understanding of hydrogen sources and sinks ...
• and to provide an early warning system in case we
  have overlooked something

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Safety

• Hydrogen is no more hazardous than conventional
  fuels, as long as the proper technical standards
  and safety rules are used
• The international discussions now taking place
  will help to ensure adequate safety in the new
  hydrogen technologies

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Safety

• Safety should be an integral part of hydrogen
  technology common standards will help the growth
  of the hydrogen economy
• If these recommendations are followed there is no
  reason to believe that hydrogen will be riskier
  than conventional fuels

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Conclusions

• Long-term challenges such as climate change and
  security of energy supply require long-term
  solutions
• A combination of fuel cells, which will reach
  commercial maturity in 10-20 years, and a
  hydrogen infrastructure could be a way forward if
  the technological barriers can be overcome

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Conclusions

• The most pressing technical issue is to develop
  better storage systems for hydrogen, especially
  in the transport sector
• In the long term, hydrogen could be a key element
  in highly diversified, robust, environmentally-ben
  ign and affordable energy systems

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Recommendations triple helix
Society
Research programmes Lighthouse projects Regulation
Market incentives
Research on selected techno-logy
platforms Demonstration projects Europe-wide
projects Development of international standards
and regulations
Hydrogen Technology Platform
Focused RD push Development projects Prototypes C
ommercial introduction
Business
Research
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Recommendations

• Involvement of developing countries to ensure
  adequate system design and reduce time lag for
  technological penetration and market development
• Involve policy makers in developing countries in
  decisions concerning hydrogen economy
• Providing high quality information

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Recommendations

• More research in
• Hydrogen production by environment-friendly
  technologies
• Fuel cells and electrolysers as key technologies
  for balancing electricity grids in conjunction
  with hydrogen storage and distribution systems
• The environmental effects of hydrogen

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Recommendations

• Storage of hydrogen for use in vehicles, power
  plants and electronics, including portable
  applications
• Infrastructure development, especially in the
  transport sector
• International standards and regulations

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Hydrogen a challenge and an opportunity for the
future

• The aims of the conference
• to highlight international government commitment
  to hydrogen RD to ensure energy diversity and
  environmental improvements in road transport
  use
• to highlight and stimulate public-private
  partnership in the field of hydrogen technology
  RD
• to provide new figures on the economic realities
  of building a hydrogen infrastructure
• benchmarking current state of play regarding
  feasibility of hydrogen commercialisation