HYGRO conducted various studies and has a thorough knowledge of the hydrogen market. The studies make clear that:
- A hydrogen turbine is able to produce more and cheaper hydrogen, to such an extent that it surpasses the amount and cost of energy that an ordinary wind turbine is able to deliver to the grid in electricity.
- With the application of green hydrogen in the transport sector, HYGRO expects that maximum profit can be achieved both from an environmental and economic point of view.
- Hydrogen from a hydrogen turbine is one of the cheaper options to replace natural gas in the built environment.
- The impact of the deployment of “hydrogen turbines” is great: less SDE subsidies are required, considerably less grid reinforcements are required and there is little to no surplus on the grid during strong winds.
- The transport costs for hydrogen are lower than those for electricity.
- In practice, the costs of high quality hydrogen from natural gas are similar to those of hydrogen generated through electrolysis within a wind turbine. Moreover, the environmental impact of the latter is higher, because the efficiency gain in relation to the combustion engine leads to a further reduction of CO2, NOx, particulate matter and noise emissions (per kg/hydrogen) than when used to replace hydrogen from natural gas. Driving on hydrogen is possible as of approximately 2021, against identical costs as driving on diesel.
- And finally, filling up with hydrogen goes a lot faster than electrically charging the batteries of vehicles.
Competitive with a combustion engine
Fuel cell technology combined with an electric motor is able to compete with combustion engines when it comes to cost price and life span. Amongst other things, this is due to the fact that in the coming years several parties are starting to produce fuel cells on a large scale, which means that purchase costs go down. In a few years' time , due to the inherently higher efficiency of electric vehicles, it will be possible to sell hydrogen at the pump without any subsidies or exemptions from excise duties. We expect that the costs per driven kilometre for hydrogen will be lower than those for diesel.
