All the hydrogen produced today is grey hydrogen used in industry. How difficult is it to replace this with green hydrogen?
Grey hydrogen and green hydrogen (as well as all other colors) are the same substance. So they can be substituted without any technical changes. However, existing supply contracts cannot be canceled without notice, so there is a time delay. And the most important factor is of course the cost. Grey hydrogen is normally sold for 1,5-1,7 € in industrial quantities and delivered at the point of use. Such a price level is difficult to reach without significant cost reductions for the production of green hydrogen. Apart from cost reductions in green hydrogen production there are 2 developments helping to overcome this gap. On the one hand regulation is being prepared to make grey hydrogen production more expensive. The most obvious one is the removal of the exemption from the ETS system, which could be announced still in 2021. But also other CO2 charging systems and fees are being envisaged. On the other hand there could be subsidies to close the gap at least for the initial ramp up of green hydrogen. So the obstacles are commercial, no technical obstacles.