Study finds running a hydrogen plane could be cheaper than traditional aircraft by 2035
In Belgium, Transport & Environment reported that hydrogen jets could be cheaper to run than fossil fuel planes from 2035 provided kerosene is taxed adequately.
In 2035, running planes on hydrogen could be 8% more expensive than using kerosene. But with a tax on fossil jet fuel and a price on carbon, hydrogen planes could become 2% cheaper to operate than their kerosene counterparts. These pricing measures are key to the deployment of green technologies like hydrogen planes, T&E said.
An economic study by research group Steer, and commissioned by T&E, looked at future operating costs of hydrogen planes on intra-European flights and found that they could be an efficient, cost competitive technology to decarbonize the sector.
Carlos López de la Osa, aviation technical manager at T&E, said: “Airbus promised the world it would build a hydrogen jet by 2035. Building these planes is economically feasible, but if we want Airbus to walk the talk, we’ll need to create a market for zero emission aircraft, by taxing fossil jet fuel and mandating zero emission planes in the future. If we have to rely only on Airbus’ goodwill, hydrogen jets will never be more than a pipe dream.”
The analysis also shows that the total cost of deploying hydrogen aircraft for intra-European aviation would be $320.7 billion by 2050.
Category: Hydrogen
