European Commission adopts two Delegated Acts defining renewable hydrogen

In Belgium, hydrogen plays a key role in our European Green Deal and in the REPowerEU plan. Upscaling the use of renewable hydrogen, ammonia and other derivatives will accelerate the decarbonisation of our energy system and greatly reduce the EU’s dependence on Russian imported fossil fuels.

Defining now the conditions under which hydrogen can be considered ‘renewable’ is key to facilitate the scaling up of hydrogen production in Europe and ensure that hydrogen can fully contribute to the Fit for 55 and REPowerEU objectives. It is important to ensure that the increased hydrogen demand is supported by the creation of new renewable electricity generation capacities.

On Tuesday, the Commission has therefore adopted two Delegated Acts, as required under Article 27(3) of the Renewable Energy Directive (2018/2001), defining what constitutes renewable hydrogen for the EU. This will complement its work on an EU regulatory framework for hydrogen and interplay with other EU rules including on energy infrastructure and state aid, as well as the proposed consumption targets for renewable hydrogen for the industry and transport sectors contained in the Fit for 55 package.

In particular, the first Delegated Act defines when hydrogen, hydrogen-based fuels or other energy carriers can be considered as a renewable fuel of non-biological origin, or RFNBO. The rules are to ensure that these fuels can only be produced from “additional” renewable electricity generated at the same time and in the same area as their own production.

The second Delegated Act sets the methodology to calculate GHG emissions savings from RFNBOs and recycled carbon fuels. The methodology takes into account the full lifecycle of the fuels to calculate the emissions and the associated savings. It also establishes that the greenhouse gas emissions savings from the use of recycled carbon fuels shall be at least 70%, compared to the fuels they are replacing.