Energy giants’ lobbying fuels the rise of hydrogen

Shell and BP want the controversial gas in families’ boilers. They’re pushing hard. By John Collingridge

Sunday May 02 2021, 12.01am, The Sunday Times

EXTRACTS

Few parts of the UK have attracted as much government attention in recent months as northeast England. Although Conservative mayor Ben Houchen is favourite to win Thursday’s Tees Valley mayoral election, ministers have left nothing to chance.

The 34-year-old has hosted visits from Boris Johnson, chancellor Rishi Sunak and business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng. Nearby Hartlepool, where the Tories’ Jill Mortimer is the bookies’ favourite to grab the seat from Labour in this week’s by-election, has received a similar love-bombing.

Houchen’s campaign has had a distinctly green tinge. He has campaigned on a ticket of clean industrial rebirth in an area ravaged by the closures of steel and chemicals works.

Hydrogen has been at its heart — an element that in just a few years has propelled into the mainstream.

Huge vested interests lie behind the rise of hydrogen: oil giants such as Shell, BP and Norway’s Equinor have staked their futures on natural gas as a less-polluting alternative to oil. read more

GASCADE, Gasunie, RWE and Shell sign green hydrogen agreement

Published by Bella Weetch, Editorial Assistant: Energy Global, Monday, 26 April 2021 16:00

Project partners GASCADE, Gasunie, RWE and Shell have signed a declaration of intent to further intensify their collaboration on the AquaDuctus project.

The AquaDuctus pipeline will transport green hydrogen from the North Sea directly to the continent. It is part of the AquaVentus initiative, which plans to install 10 GW of electrolysis capacity for green hydrogen production from offshore wind power between Heligoland, Germany, and the Dogger sand bank, 100 km off the east coast of England. In the dovetailed sub-projects, demand, generation, and transport of hydrogen are to be synchronised in order to enable a swift market ramp-up. read more

By Leigh Collins 

Blue hydrogen may well be more expensive than green H₂ by 2030, as some analysts predict, but large volumes of the blue variety — produced from natural gas with carbon capture and storage (CCS) — might nevertheless still be needed, Shell’s top hydrogen executive explains in a Recharge podcast.

Paul Bogers, vice-president, hydrogen, at Shell, argues that the power sector will need an awful lot of renewable energy to decarbonise, so there may simply not be enough wind or solar power available to produce green hydrogen on top of that. read more

Shell hunts for hydrogen opportunities in Australia in net zero push

Sonali Paul: Thu, 25 March 2021, 8:50 am MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell is scouring Australia for opportunities to develop its hydrogen business, so far focused on projects in Europe, in its drive to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Shell Australia Chair Tony Nunan said the company sees hydrogen and carbon capture and storage as essential to the company’s net zero ambitions, and Australia is well placed to be competitive in both of those technologies.

Australia, like its biggest coal and gas customers China, Japan and South Korea, has mapped out a hydrogen strategy, with plans to become an exporter by 2030, using its vast wind and solar resources to produce “green” hydrogen and natural gas and carbon capture for “blue” hydrogen. read more

Shell Canada employing ‘agile teams’ to power energy transition and reduce emissions

Wed., March 3, 2021, 9:15 p.m.

CALGARY — The president and country head for Shell Canada says its transition into a provider of cleaner energy is being driven by a network of “agile teams” of employees who are examining between 30 and 40 project ideas at a time.

Michael Crothers says the teams formed from employees brought in from various parts of the company are looking at proposals that include the use of hydrogen, biofuels, and wind and solar energy to help the company reduce its environmental impact. read more

Energy firms bet on hydrogen boom, but payday far away

By Ron Bousso, Stephanie Kelly: March 3, 2021: 4 MIN READ

(Reuters) – Governments and energy companies are placing large bets on clean hydrogen playing a leading role in efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions, but its future uses and costs are highly uncertain. FILE PHOTO: A Shell hydrogen station for hydrogen fuel cell cars is seen in Torrance, California September 30, 2014. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson//File Photo

“Without hydrogen by 2050 we cannot aim to be a net zero (carbon) economy,” Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden told the CERAWeek online conference this week.

The universe’s most abundant element, hydrogen has been touted for decades as an alternative to fossil fuels, but attempts to commercialise it for use in vehicles and industry have largely failed.

So far, commercial-scale production has been from natural gas or coal and it is a niche market used mainly in oil refining and heavy industry. read more

Shell Says Hydrogen Is Heavy Transport’s Future. What Now for Biofuels?

A Deloitte report commissioned by Shell finds that the heavy-freight sector is increasingly planning for a switch to hydrogen.

JOHN PARNELL JANUARY 21, 2021 EXTRACTS

Hydrogen will be the key energy source for global road freight, according to a new report commissioned by European oil major Shell.

The study, carried out by global accountancy firm Deloitte on Shell’s behalf, questioned 158 executives in the road freight sector in 22 different countries.

“We believe that once produced at scale, hydrogen will likely be the more cost-effective and viable pathway to net-zero emissions for heavy-duty and long-route medium-duty vehicles, and electric mobility will do the same for light-duty and short-route medium-duty vehicles,” Carlos Maurer, EVP of sectors and decarbonization at Shell, said in a statement. “Shell has already begun taking steps to make these energy solutions available to customers, and we are partnering with others to expand these efforts.” read more

Shell backs GreenCom’s €12 million equity funding bid for global expansion

Edith Hancock: Reporter, Solar Media: 03 Dec 2020

O&G giant Shell has backed residential renewables platform GreenCom Network’s €12 million funding round through its investment arm, Shell Ventures.

GreenCom completed its latest equity funding round yesterday (2 December), which will be used to help the company strengthen its position in Europe and expand further afield.

Jurgen Hornman, Shell Ventures’ investment director, said the company appeals to investors as its allows a utility group to “offer integrated home energy solutions” to both residential and commercial consumers, while GreenCom’s previous large-scale partnerships have given it “innovative routes to market”. read more

Shell plans on carrying out Floating Solar tryout to Generate Hydrogen at the current ranch

11 Aug 2020

The Royal Dutch Shell-led Crosswinds has earned lease agreements on creating a new offshore wind ranch on the North Sea of the Dutch region.

The wind ranch of 760 megawatts will use practically 70 Siemens Ganesa turbines.

As confirmed by Eneco and Shell, on that particular locale, there will be a floating solar park, storage of short-term batteries, turbines set to minimize the ‘wake impact’ and renewable Hydrogen through electrolysis. The consortium aims at delivering the power amidst power outrage. read more

Shell and Eneco’s offshore wind farm to include floating solar and hydrogen production

PUBLISHED THU, JUL 30 20209:19 AM EDT Anmar Frangoul

A consortium made up of Shell and Eneco is to develop an offshore wind farm that will incorporate a range of “technology demonstrations” including floating solar and hydrogen produced by electrolysis.

The 759 megawatt (MW) Hollandse Kust (noord) facility will be subsidy free and able to produce at least 3.3 terawatt hours annually, according to Eneco, a Rotterdam-headquartered firm whose shareholders are the Mitsubishi Corporation and Chubu Electric Power Co. The project will use 69 turbines from Siemens Gamesa, which will have a capacity of 11 MW each. read more

Published by Industry Global News24: 06 Jan 2020

The Anglo-Dutch company had promised its investors in 2017 that, it will spend $1 bn to $2 bn per year. The fund will be invested in developing a clean energy project till the end of 2020. The company is falling short of the planned $4 billion-$6 billion to be invested between 2016 to end of 2020. This slow progress is likely to raise concerns from environmental groups that oil companies are not contributing to environmental conservation.

Since setting up the “new energies” division, the country has spent approximately $2 billion in setting up a low-carbon energy and electricity production facility. With only a year left to go, the company is far behind the set investment target of $4 bn-$6 bn. read more