A new report by Hydrogen Mobility Ireland was launched last week in Dublin, which will give the green light to hydrogen vehicles including 30 buses, 50 cars and 10 trucks being on Irish roads by 2023.
The report, titled ‘A Hydrogen Roadmap for Irish Transport 2020-2030-Hydrogen Mobility Ireland’ was presented to Richard Bruton, TD and Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment by the relatively new industry group, Hydrogren Mobility Ireland.
Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles consume hydrogen as a fuel to produce electrical power for the vehicle, with water vapour being the only by-product.
Hydrogen Mobility Ireland has set forward the business case and rationale for both the private sector and government to support the provision of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
The report presented to the Irish government finds that:
• Ireland should follow the lead of countries like China, US and Japan who have committed to each having in the region of one million hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by 2030
• The government should apply similar incentives to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as they do to battery electric vehicles currently
• Hydrogen vehicles will be cost-competitive with conventional fuel vehicles by mid next decade. Buses, vans and taxis could be deployed as the catalyst for market establishment
• Recommends building clusters of refuelling stations to give early adopters confidence
• A first deployment project involving two hydrogen production sources and three refuelling stations are presented. This can be done at a cost of €34M, and will require €14m of funding from Government
• By 2030, a network of 76 stations would ensure that 50% of the population of the island would live in a town with a Hydrogen Refuelling Station as well as providing adequate coverage of major roads, while a network of 27 electrolysers collocated with renewable generators (mostly wind farms) would supply the hydrogen fuel
GenComm is a renewable hydrogen project led by the Belfast Metropolitan College and is a key member of Hydrogen Mobility Ireland.
The project will develop three pilot facilities fuelled by solar power in Germany, wind power in Northern Ireland and bioenergy in Scotland, to produce and store hydrogen.
Hydrogen produced from the plants will be used to generate heat, power and transport fuel for the respective communities in these three countries.
GenComm Programme Manager, Paul Mc Cormack said: “The GenComm project welcomes the launch of the Hydrogen Mobility Strategy for Ireland. Decarbonising transport fuels and the electricity supply are prime requirements under the Paris agreement.
"As Ireland plans and develops a successful energy transition away from fossil fuels and towards the widespread use of secure renewable energy supply, it will require the exploitation and implementation of existing and new technologies with industry stakeholders/customers having commercial confidence in them.
"This strategy forms the building blocks of this confidence required by the market and illustrates how hydrogen can be part of the future green energy mix for Ireland."
GenComm claims it will technically and financially validate renewable H2 and develop a Decision Support Tool (DST) to enable stakeholders and communities to transition to renewable hydrogen.
