The Dutch King Willemn Alexander on June 26, 2019 opened the first eletrolyzer co-funded by the first  EU Connecting Europe Facility’s Synergy project, TSO2020 connecting the EU TEN Energy network by the Cobra cable, to the TEN Transport network. Referring to his long term engagement with international water issues, the king filled up the 1 MW  electrolyzer at the HyStock gas storage site in Veendam, Northern Netherlands and brought a  toast with the only residue of hydrogen power systems, pure H2O. Gasunie CEO Han Fennema referred to the efforts on the Waterstof Coalition of Dutch companies and Greenpeace, that  in one year succeeded to put hydrogen firmly on the map in the Dutch Climate Agreement. Manon van Beek CEO of TSO TenneT indicated that, on the basis of  the joint Infrastructure Outlook 2050, that Gasunie put together with TenneT in February 2019,  now is the time to develop concrete projects on significant hydorgen demand and demonstrate real business cases. Shell CEO Marian van Loon,  who is driving a Toyota Mirai, mentioned the continuing efforts of Shell in building fuelling stations in Germany California and Japan.

The EU Transport and Energy Council included the need for synergy in its conclusions on June 25, 2019

26. STRESSES the need to better exploit the synergies between different parts of the energy
system, production, transport, trade, transformation, distribution and consumption, and by
empowering consumers, including in transport and industry, to become active participants in the
energy system, thus contributing to decarbonization and system flexibility.

27. EMPHASIZES the potential of biogas and biomethane as well as the development and
deployment of safe and sustainable low-carbon technologies contributing to decarbonization. The
production of hydrogen, particularly from renewables, has a potential which needs to be further
assessed and explored, with a view to make the best use of the existing EU gas infrastructure in a
decarbonized energy system.

Outgoing EU Energy Commissioner Maros Šefčovič on June 24, 2019 at the Brussels launch of Bloomberg NEF’s New Energy Outlook.said that “Europe must look for ways of incorporating the carbon content of imported products while avoiding import dependence on key technologies for the energy transition.” He also warned that  “…. we have to be pretty focused on ensuring that we do not substitute our energy dependence with some kind of technological dependence or raw materials dependence,” Europe has to be “very vigilant” and avoid “repeating the same mistakes when it comes to batteries, electric vehicles, electric buses or hydrogen technologies which, I agree, will probably be key to zero-carbon heavy-duty vehicles,” he said.Taking the automotive sector as an example, Šefčovič explained that Europe’s industrial success in the coming decade “will depend very much on energy storage and smart grids”, but he also cautioned against import dependence for the car sector.

With incoming EU President Finland setting the tone with their ambition to reach zero net CO2 emissions in 2035, only 8 EU Member States are still dabbling… Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Estonia, Lithuania  Poland and the Czech Republic. The list of zero-net  supporting EU countires so far: France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Portugal, Denmark, Luxembourg, Latvia, UK, Germany, Italy, Finland, Slovenia, Austria, Greece, Malta and Cyprus.  Denmark’s new social democrat govwernement on June 26, on 2019 embarked on a political program that aims to promote one of the most ambitious climate policies in the world. The program “A Fair Direction for Denmark,” includes cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 70% by 2030, banning the sale of all new diesel and petrol cars from 2030 and, introducing a binding reduction target for agriculture.

At a hydrogen panel at Euractiv on Hydrogen emission reduction potential on June 25, 2019 Dutch H2 envoy Noé van Hulst mentioned the need for an integrated EU market for clean H2 to decarbonize the “harder” sectors, with standardized regulatory conditions: who owns stores and distributes the hydrogen in the future. The European Climate Foundation proposed an electric aviation fuel mandate and the need for a consolidated leadership role of  Europe in electrolyzer development. A Daimler representative lamented that it seems the european automotive sector was always accused of being too late; be it with battery cars or with fuel cell cars. He called for a Hydorgen Alliance of stakeholders in all corners of society to force a rapid uptake of these technologies. The EHA as an Energy and Hydrogen Alliance of national and regional experts continues to drive the development of larger infrtstrucutre projects into the next EU Multi Annual Framework.