That was the assessment of Konstantin Grebennik, project manager of the Analytical Center of the Fuel and Energy Complex of the Russian Energy Agency (REA).

    “According to our estimates, by 2040, we could achieve a price for hydrogen at the level of production based on fossil fuels, taking into account plans for a carbon tax,” Grebennik said during a conference entitled “Monetisation of gas in Russia and the CIS”.

    “The main factors to ensure competitivity for carbon-free hydrogen include a promising reduction in capital expenditure on electrolysers and in the cost of power produced by renewable sources. If electrolysers are mass produced, their cost could fall from $1,000/kW currently to $200/kW by 2050.”

    “If the scenario of accelerated decarbonisation actually occurs, the cost of hydrogen produced on the basis of renewables could come down to less than $2 per kg by 2050. This can be compared to the cost of hydrogen on the basis of natural gas in the EU by the beginning of the 2040s and in Russia by the end of the 2040s. But this time frame could shrink if you take account of different programmes of state subsidies to hydrogen energy,” Grebennik said.

    The priority sector for using hydrogen with the aim of decarbonising of industry is metallurgy or steelmaking (by introducing technology for direct reduced iron – DRI) and the chemical industry (using low-carbon hydrogen as raw material for producing ammonia and methanol). Low-carbon hydrogen can be used in other sectors o industry, including glass manufacture and electrical engineering.