Integrated Energy Planning for Hydrogen and Hydrogen-based Fuels and Chemicals: State of Knowledge and Current Developments

Under national and global commitments to minimise greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming, governments accept that a transition away from fossil fuels in the energy sector and industries is needed. Despite this, the pathway to achieve such transitions across the electricity, heat, transport, and industrial sectors often remains unclear.

There is growing conviction that hydrogen and its downstream products will be a key part in our future systems. While some hydrogen applications are unavoidable as there are no other defossilised alternatives (like ammonia-based fertilisers, methanol, e-synfuels), others are simply uncompetitive because more efficient solutions already exist (like urban mobility). Between these extremes, there are many other applications that require careful assessment to understand plausible integration pathways.

In this work, we present an overview of energy strategies that we have produced in recent years to re-analyse the role of hydrogen for diverse energy futures. We will present modeling outcomes of global studies, as well as from Europe and Germany, South America and Chile, and initial results from New Zealand and Pacific Islands. We provide concrete comparisons between modelling approaches and obtained recommendations on hydrogen applications across these geographic regions. We will discuss the implications of this combined work, including challenges and common themes for hydrogen integration, as well as insights for future integrated energy system studies motivated by our recent work in the South Pacific.