What can North America learn from Europe’s hydrogen journey?

Energy Transition Talks

As Europe advances its vision of a hydrogen economy, what are some lessons learned for North America? In episode 10 of our Energy Transition Talks podcast series, CGI experts Frank Sent and Mark van Engelen discuss the foundational aspects of unlocking the potential of hydrogen, from regulations and funding to collaboration and innovation.

Europe is making significant strides in exploring hydrogen's potential to meet ambitious net-zero emissions targets, through a mix of funding, innovation, ecosystem collaboration and strategies.

For instance, there are about 35 hydrogen valleys worldwide, of which 24 are in Europe, says Frank. These projects simulate a hydrogen ecosystem, from production and storage to transportation and consumption, to learn about the technology needed and how the value chain could work. "I think this could also be applied in North America as well,” says Frank.

Another example is the European Hydrogen Backbone (EHB) initiative focused on a dedicated hydrogen transport infrastructure across Europe. "There are 31 transport service operators (TSOs) in Europe working on how to transport hydrogen from different suppliers to the industries, which have the biggest need for hydrogen," says Frank. He adds that the war in Ukraine war has accelerated efforts to expand the hydrogen pipeline infrastructure from previously set targets.

Driving forward data-driven decision-making

As data becomes increasingly important, Mark notes North America has invested in data lakes to understand asset performance and build automation on top of those data sets. "These technology and data advances can help make hydrogen technology even more efficient than a couple of years ago," he says.

In this regard, sector coupling will become relevant to understanding what is happening across electricity, gas and hydrogen grids. Frank says data is essential to decide when to produce hydrogen or inject electricity or hydrogen into the grid.

Moreover, Frank foresees data lakes becoming more popular. "You have to consider many attributes like the weather forecast, market price, stock market price, demand and supply of hydrogen and other energy sources. You need to work with the data in real-time, and the energy and utilities sector will see a drastic increase in machine learning and data scientists in this area," he says.
In North America, Mark shares that some organizations have been focused on automation for several years to leverage AI and machine learning on their data sets and provide streaming data to operations. "We're also seeing an increase in satellite information to ensure the safety and integrity of pipelines," adding that he expects to see the same trajectory for hydrogen, which will be treated as a new asset.

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