The emissions impact of the time-matching requirement between grid-connected electrolytic hydrogen production and contracted renewables has been the focus of a vigorous policy debate. Energy system model-based analysis of grid-connected hydrogen production demonstrates that emissions impacts under any time-matching requirement are highly sensitive to the definition of additionality and region-specific policies.
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References
US Congress H.R.5376: Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (117th Congress, 2022). This US legislation introduces the emissions-indexed production tax credit for hydrogen.
Ricks, W., Xu, Q. & Jenkins, J. D. Minimizing emissions from grid-based hydrogen production in the United States. Environ. Res. Lett. 18, 014025 (2023). This paper reports that hourly time matching is required for hydrogen to be considered low carbon.
Zeyen, E., Riepin, I. & Brown, T. Temporal regulation of renewable supply for electrolytic hydrogen. Zenodo https://zenodo.org/records/8324521 (2023). This preprint reports that annual time matching might be sufficient for hydrogen to be considered low carbon.
MIT Energy Initiative. DOLPHYN model. Github https://github.com/macroenergy/DOLPHYN (2023). The open-source energy systems model deployed in the presented analysis.
Ruhnau, O. & Schiele, J. Flexible green hydrogen: the effect of relaxing simultaneity requirements on project design, economics, and power sector emissions. Energy Policy 182, 113763 (2023). This paper presents an analysis of the granular project-specific economics of H2 production under different time-matching requirements.
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This is a summary of: Giovanniello, M. A. et al. The influence of additionality and time-matching requirements on the emissions from grid-connected hydrogen production. Nat. Energy https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-023-01435-0 (2024).
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Assessing the emissions impact of grid-connected hydrogen production. Nat Energy 9, 119–120 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-023-01445-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-023-01445-y