Green Hydrogen
Green hydrogen, produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable energy sources, is emerging as a significant player in the transition to a low-carbon economy. It is especially beneficial for providing backup power and stabilizing grids with high shares of intermittent renewable energy sources like wind and solar. By acting as an energy carrier, green hydrogen can store excess renewable energy and release it when needed, thus smoothing and balancing power generation and enhancing grid flexibility. Its applications contribute to three distinct energy solution pathways in the One Earth Solutions Framework. Green Hydrogen Power: Green hydrogen can be used to generate electricity through fuel cells or by burning it in turbines. Fuel cells convert hydrogen into electricity with water as the only byproduct, making them a clean alternative to fossil fuel-based power plants. Green Hydrogen Heat: Green hydrogen can be used to generate heat through combustion for high-heat industrial needs or co-generation fuel cells for lower-heat commercial and residential markets. Green Hydrogen Fuel: Green hydrogen can be transported through cooled pipelines for use in fuel cells in vehicles, where it combines with oxygen to generate electricity while producing only water and heat. Currently, almost all hydrogen used in industry is produced using fossil fuels (often called grey hydrogen). However, in the past five years, the capacity to create green hydrogen has doubled.
Achieving the Paris Climate Agreement Goals Part 2: Science-based Target Setting for the Finance industry—Net-Zero Sectoral 1.5˚C Pathways for Real Economy Sectors
The One Earth Climate Model (OECM) began as a research project supported by One Earth between the University of Technology Sydney, the German Aerospace Centre, and the University of Melbourne in 2017. They were tasked with developing a detailed 1.5˚C GHG trajectory for ten world regions without the continued use of fossil fuels or unproven technologies like carbon capture and storage. The results of the first model made it clear that it is still possible to limit warming to 1.5˚C with a rapid transition to 100% renewable energy sources. However, the model did not yet have the granularity the financial sector needed to guide and benchmark net-zero investments. The book, Achieving the Paris Climate Agreement Goals Part 2: Science-based Target Setting for the Finance Industry — Net-Zero Sectoral 1.5˚C Pathways for Real Economy Sectors, is designed as a continuation of this group’s 2019 first edition, which focused on country-specific energy pathways. Decarbonization pathways have been developed for countries, regions, and communities, but never before for industry sectors in a detailed way. While the book consists of 400 pages of dense methodologies and calculations, its topline message is clear; in the words of the lead author Sven Teske, “ We can limit global warming to 1.5˚C with the technology pathways we describe... I would call it an action plan to save the future for our children and their children."
Renewable Hydrogen Roadmap
Primarily using the lens of the transportation market in California, this roadmap identifies the opportunities and challenges for renewable hydrogen to provide zero-emission or even carbon-negative transportation fuel as well as critical energy storage for renewables. It considers the many aspects of the current hydrogen ecosystem and identifies the steps and policy decisions that are necessary to stimulate growth in the renewable hydrogen marketplace and clean energy economy.