Siemens Gamesa defends green hydrogen as "key" to achieving energy security in Europe

MADRID, 7 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Siemens Gamesa has defended the promotion of green hydrogen as "key" to achieving energy security in Europe in the current situation caused by the war in Ukraine and has asked governments to invest in the local production of this technology "to provide energy security and price stability for consumers.

The group has presented its 'white paper' on 'How to achieve energy security in Europe', which describes the energy supply challenges that Europe has been facing since the invasion of Ukraine and the actions needed to achieve stability and energy security, while addressing the climate emergency and achieving decarbonisation.

In this sense, the wind turbine manufacturer warns of the need to "drastically" increase the production of renewable energy to achieve energy security and achieve environmental objectives.

Thus, it considers that the sectors that have difficulties to be electrified can advance in decarbonization through investment in the development of green hydrogen.

Siemens Gamesa stresses that in the last three months the need for nations to urgently protect and secure their energy supply has increased exponentially, after geopolitical events have made energy security now "the top" priority of European governments, both in terms of guaranteeing independent supply and ensuring stable prices for the consumer.

Siemens Gamesa CEO Jochen Eickholt stressed the importance of jointly addressing energy security and decarbonisation, as "the current crisis must not be allowed to push the climate emergency to the background".

"It is essential that the entire renewable energy ecosystem is aligned with the need to reduce the demand for fossil fuels. For green hydrogen to reach scale and, therefore, competitiveness, a radical change is necessary in the dimension and speed of implementation of renewable energies", he added.

To this end, Siemens Gamesa advocates increasing the volume of renewable energy produced in Europe; for which it is essential to speed up the process of granting permits, as well as to establish transportation and distribution infrastructures for green hydrogen, whether domestically produced or imported, and to develop a stable market for its commercialization.

In addition, it calls for innovation in storage solutions to guarantee the continuity and reliability of supply and to introduce a flexible legislative framework that allows the coupling between the electricity and gas sectors to balance the demand for electricity and the production of green hydrogen.

The company also defends the introduction of legislative tools in order to create a market for green hydrogen generated in the EU and that includes a comparison of costs against imports based on fossil fuels; as well as industrializing the production of the electrolysers necessary to supply the demand in Europe.