Nuclear and hydrogen : is it truly a major step forward ?

‘France Hydrogène’ reacts to the Delegated Acts adopted at the end of last week and which concern renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBOs).

Has hydrogen from nuclear origin been acknowledged as renewable?

The association describes the adoption of these texts as a “crucial step” since the European and national industry will be able to make their investment decisions. However, France Hydrogène puts a serious caveat on this; even if it is a considerable step forward, “it would be wrong to consider it as an acknowledgement of the role of nuclear or electrolytic hydrogen as low-carbon,” the association said in its statement. “The European Commission is simply responding to a fundamental right of the Union, that of free choice by Member States of their energy mix: given that France already has a decarbonised electricity mix, making the deployment of hydrogen conditional on the creation of new renewable electricity production assets would automatically lead to excess capacity and would therefore disregard the said principle.”

To sum up: the game isn’t over yet. And we must keep fighting to ensure that hydrogen produced from nuclear electricity is recognised in the targets and supports defined by Brussels.

As for the other parts of the text, France Hydrogène mentions “major positive impacts, by making a considerable volume of renewable energy installations eligible for hydrogen production in France. In particular, French electrolysers can be supplied from hydroelectric power stations. It will therefore be possible to produce only RFNBOs while maintaining a high load factor, a decisive point for the competitiveness of the hydrogen produced and to meet the need for stability in the supply of hydrogen to end-users (particularly industrial users).”

Do you want to learn more about nuclear and hydrogen? You can read our latest article on the topic here. 

Article written by Laurent Meillaud and translated by Logan King