The European Court of Auditors (ECA) stated on Wednesday that the European Union’s ambitions to produce and import green hydrogen fuel are unlikely to materialize, despite receiving billions of euros in funding, reported Reuters.
The European Commission aims to achieve up to 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen production and import an additional 10 million tonnes by 2030, as part of efforts to reduce dependency on Russian energy imports, although these targets are not binding.
According to the ECA’s report, these targets were set based on political aspirations rather than a robust analysis, and the EU is currently far from reaching them. Additionally, the EU’s goal of installing at least 40 gigawatts of renewable hydrogen electrolysers by 2030 originated from proposals by a hydrogen industry lobby group, rather than independent assessment.
Despite the availability of €18.8 billion ($20.5 billion) in EU funding for green hydrogen projects, only projects with less than 5GW of production capacity by 2030 have progressed to an advanced stage. Projects totaling approximately 50GW of capacity are still in earlier stages of assessment.
