Achieving an affordable low-carbon Europe thanks to nuclear-based hydrogen

Brussels, 4 May 2021: According to a FORATOM position paper released today, nuclear provides a perfect solution for the generation of large quantities of low-carbon and affordable hydrogen.  This will be key as Europe aims to transform all parts of its economy – including transport and industry.

“The EU has set itself the very ambitious target of decarbonising its economy by 2050. Achieving this will require a massive transformation of the energy, industry, transport and building sectors”, states Yves Desbazeille, FORATOM Director General. “Hydrogen is one of the technologies which could help Europe reach its goals. But two challenges remain: producing real low-carbon hydrogen and expanding its use to a broad range of energy intensive sectors that need it.”

Low-carbon nuclear power and heat – as well as renewables – can be used for the generation of decarbonised hydrogen via a electrolysers.  The advantage of making use of all low-carbon electricity sources is two-fold.  First of all, it will ensure that there is enough hydrogen available at all times as an increasing number of sectors switch to this energy carrier. Secondly, running an electrolyser for longer periods reduces the costs of this technology.

“There are several nuclear-to-hydrogen projects in the pipeline”, adds Mr Desbazeille. “Whilst this technology is a viable solution, we have to make sure that the EU puts in place the right policy incentives to expand its development further”.

In this respect, FORATOM has put forward a series of policy recommendations, which include the following:

• Acknowledging the positive role that low-carbon nuclear energy can play in the EU’s Hydrogen Strategy
• Supporting Innovation, Research and Development into all low-carbon hydrogen projects.
• Paying more attention to economic aspects and supply reliability – as both are key issues for industry – in order to ensure rapid development of clean hydrogen projects at a more competitive cost.

To find out more about how nuclear can provide an affordable, stable supply of low-carbon hydrogen, check out our position paper and background document.

About us: The European Atomic Forum (FORATOM) is the Brussels-based trade association for the nuclear energy industry in Europe. The membership of FORATOM is made up of 15 national nuclear associations and through these associations, FORATOM represents nearly 3,000 European companies working in the industry and supporting around 1,100,000 jobs.

For more information, please contact Jessica Johnson: jessica.johnson@foratom.org.