Spain, important axis on the hydrogen market

    WATCH VIDEO OF THE WHOLE EVENT 

How are gas prices generated? What relevance will the green hydrogen have in the coming years? Can the gas negotiation model be used as a reference to design the future hydrogen market? These questions were analysed during the conference "Energy crisis and the proposal of renewable hydrogen as a new commodity", organised by the Chair for Low Carbon Hydrogen Studies. Special importance was given to the future of green hydrogen, which is produced from renewable energy sources. One of the ideas on which the speakers agreed was that Europe will be a hydrogen importer and that the Iberian Peninsula will be the only one that will be able to export, both due to its geographical location and access to low-cost renewable energy.

Mario Pérez, head of hydrogen pricing at S&P Global, made a complete analysis of the hydrogen market from a global perspective, highlighting the dependence of hydrogen prices on electricity, electrolysers, water and geographic location. He said that hydrogen prices are falling because the cost of the electricity needed to produce hydrogen is also falling (and prices will fall as renewable energies are incorporated), and admitted that "hydrogen will be a key energy vector to achieve a zero-emission economy".

For his part, Raúl Yuntas, president of Mibgas, explained how different gas trading systems coexist, from the two-sided market to the organised market, and analysed how gas prices are generated and negotiated in Spain and the rest of Europe. Regarding hydrogen, he explained that "it can provide storage capacity in a sustainable way", in addition to the fact that "refining and fertilisers will act as catalysts for future global demand". On this matter, Pérez predicted the growth of the industrial demand for hydrogen and the development of new ones for transport, such as ships, automobiles or even planes.

For Isabel Figuerola Ferretti, co-director of the Chair for Low Carbon Hydrogen Studies, "this conference has highlighted the need to create a price signalling mechanism to link supply with demand for renewable hydrogen and therefore guarantee competitiveness and economies of scale".