Hydrogen Will Play An Important Role In A Low Carbon Society: Katsuhiko Hirose, Professional Partner, Toyota Motor Corporation
On 8th March, at the CleanEquity 2018 Conference in Monaco, stalwarts from the sustainability sector discussed their ideas about the sector. During a session called the Hydrogen Council Update, Katsuhiko Hirose, Professional Partner, Toyota Motor Corporation, gave a presentation about the hydrogen economy, and why it is a game changer in the realm of sustainability.
“To reduce CO2 emissions, electrification is essential”, said Hirose. He also added, “Electrification should increase dramatically after 2020. By 2030, more than 50% of vehicles will be electrified. There are more cheese shops than bread or meat shops at the Lausanne market due to more value for cheese. Same goes for the hydrogen market. In summer there is a large amount of milk available, but it cannot be stored. It has to be converted to cheese. This holds true for the hydrogen economy as well." Using the milk-cheese conversion dynamic, and how the conversion creates more value, is essential for a time shift, and the replacement value, Hirose began talking about the hydrogen economy and its impact on sustainability.
“Hydrogen will play an important role towards a low carbon society. Hydrogen will an important role in enabling large-scale renewables integration and power generation. It will distribute energy across sectors and regions, act as a buffer to increase system resilience, and decarbonize transportation, industrial energy use, building heat and power, and serve as a renewable feedstock”, said Hirose, adding that, “We have estimated how by 2050 hydrogen will play a big role. In a 2 degree world, hydrogen could contribute to about 18% of the demand”.
Hirose also said, “Hydrogen has a significant potential across all applications, whether it’s for power generation, transportation, industrial energy, building heat and power and as industrial feedstock. Hydrogen already has important milestones already for 2030 to reach the 2050 vision. Hydrogen is a central pillar of the required energy transition. The global roll-out after 2030 could amplify growth towards 2050”. “To achieve the 2050 vision, some important milestones for 2030 will be 3.5 Mt of hydrogen used for high-grade heat in first large-scale projects, 50 million households will be connected to a network safely blending hydrogen and natural gas and 20 Mt of CO2 converted to chemicals and intermediates such as methanol using hydrogen. It can be 18% of the final energy demand, 6 Gt of annual CO2 abatement, $2500 billion annual sales (of hydrogen and equipment) and 30 million jobs created," added Hirose.
“There will be large-scale deployment initiatives underpinned by long-term policy frameworks to attract investors. There is an urgency to initiate scale-up to meet climate change targets. Hydrogen technology has been proven in a wide range of applications, and the momentum in the industry has led to a Hydrogen Council being created. The industry will accelerate development and commercialization of products and build out infrastructure to support large-scale deployment, investors will finance infrastructure and value chain development for large-scale deployment and policy-makers will collaborate with industry to build national strategies and roadmaps and put in place long term policy frameworks”, added Hirose. “The Hydrogen Council has seen an increasing membership, who have already started investing and deploying," said Hirose.
