France will allocate €4 billion ($4.4 billion) to subsidize production of low-carbon hydrogen as part of the country’s push to help manufacturers reduce emissions, according to Bloomberg, citing Energy Transition Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher.
The fund is part of a €9 billion strategy pledged by President Emmanuel Macron in 2021 to support a cleaner, but more expensive, way to produce the gas for use in refining, chemicals production, and other industrial processes. Hydrogen made from water and non-fossil fuel generators is currently far more costly than that extracted from natural gas.
“The idea is to bridge the gap between the price of hydrogen made with a process that’s using natural gas, and the higher price stemming from projects using new technologies, which need to scale up,” Pannier-Runacher said during a visit to a fertilizer plant owned by LAT Nitrogen in eastern France on Aug. 30.
LAT Nitrogen, owned by Czech group Agrofert, is considering applying for subsidies with Electricite de France SA to build a 50-megawatt electrolizer to produce 6,000 mt of low-carbon hydrogen per year, the company reported on Aug. 31.
The €4 billion will help support the production of low-carbon hydrogen using 1 gigawatt of power capacity, the equivalent of about 1 nuclear plant, the French minister said. The government will favor hydrogen projects that are able to reduce production when demands on the French power grid are high, she said.
The manufacturing sector accounts for about a fifth of France’s carbon emissions, and the production of ammonia – a key ingredient for fertilizers – represents 1.5% of the total, according to the ministry.