By 2030, the EU member states, Norway and the UK want to expand their electrolysis capacity from today’s 143 megawatts (MW) to 138 gigawatts (GW). This almost equals a one thousand fold increase!
Spain is the front runner with a planned deployment of over 74 GW (25 GW of which are already in preparation), followed by the Netherlands (over 10 GW) and Germany (over 7 GW). Almost 75 GW, more than half of the electrolyzer capacity planned for 2030, will be powered by photovoltaics.
In Europe, hydrogen has so far been almost exclusively produced from fossil fuels and used for chemical processes, not as an energy carrier. The 11.5 metric megatonnes of hydrogen that are produced in the EU today are mainly the product of steam reforming of natural gas, while a smaller part is a by-product in the chemical industry. The electrolysis of water through renewable energies (primarily photovoltaics and wind energy) only constitutes 0.1 percent of the hydrogen produced in Europe.
