Heat and power plants | France criticises German strategy of replacing the word ‘gas’ with ‘hydrogen-ready’

France’s energy transition minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher has criticised the push for so-called “hydrogen-ready” combined heat and power plants, which will in fact run on fossil gas until clean H₂ is available at low cost, news agency Bloomberg reports.

“A strategy which consists in replacing the word ‘gas’ by ‘hydrogen-ready’ seems fragile to us,” Pannier-Runacher told a press conference on Monday.

Germany is currently planning to tender 15GW of hydrogen-ready gas power capacity, with the condition that these will have to start running on H₂ by 2035.

Proponents of hydrogen-fired power argue that H₂ can store wind and solar energy indefinitely, and balance out intermittency on the grid without increasing emissions.

However, critics argue that it will be extremely unlikely “hydrogen-ready” power plants will switch from gas to H₂ on a cost basis in the near future. As such, this would effectively giving operators a licence to continue burning fossil fuels for power until they are mandated to use hydrogen at a much higher cost —which could end up passed onto the consumer.

And even if these power plants do eventually run on hydrogen, Pannier-Runnacher cited the relative energy inefficiency of H₂ even compared to other dispatchable sources of heat and power, such as biogas and nuclear.

“There are uses for which hydrogen have a lot of value, and that’s where we want to focus,” she said, citing H₂ for industrial consumption and as a fuel for heavy-duty vehicles — although she reportedly ruled out light-duty fuel-cell vehicles such as taxis as an effective use of hydrogen.

France has announced it will tender the first €700m ($766m) in subsidies towards hydrogen production in 2024, from its €4bn budget for investment and operating grants for the sector up to 2026.

The demand support mechanism will effectively work as a Carbon Contract for Difference covering the cost differential between renewable or nuclear H₂ and grey hydrogen made from unabated natural gas.

However, these subsidies come with strings attached on end use, with blending into the gas grid and combustion for heat explicitly excluded.