The Hydrogen Council vision for 2050 compiled by McKinsey sees hydrogen “powering more than 400 million cars, 15 to 20 million trucks, and around 5 million buses in 2050, which constitute on average 20 to 25% of their respective transportation segments”. 20% of the total fleet could contribute more than one-third of the total CO2 abatement required for the road transportation sector in the two-degree scenario, according to the report. To live up to this potential this will mean that 1:12 cars should be a FCEV in 2030.

As hydrogen could replace fossil fuels as feedstock for the chemical industry  the Council’s report indicates that by 2030, 10 to 15 million tons of chemicals could be produced from such renewable feedstock. This will require a different look to dispatching renewable electricity. Cost benefit analysis in future electricity and gas palnning should take into account potential benefits of grid balancing solutions like hydrogen. The latest report of the Commission’s Expert Group on electricity interconnection targets that was published on November 9, 2017, recommends to use €2/MWh of yearly average price difference between relevant countries or regions as the indicative threshold for considering the development additional interconnectors. However the  report emphasises also that “each new interconnector be subject to a socio-economic and environmental cost-benefit analysis (CBA), and implemented only if the potential benefits outweigh the costs…while acknowledging  that rapid technological developments in the near future are likely to strongly influence the electricity network infrastructure and that therefore the proposed methodological approach of measuring interconnectivity should be reviewed regularly”. This offers an opportunity for the results of projects like the recently approved TSO2020 project, that includes CBA modelling work, to give input to these parameters so that future lists of the so-called Project of Common Interest.