A significant potential of hydrogen energy in Russia

Alexey Belogoryev, Research and Development Director of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to the newspaper Vedomosti on the prospects for the global and Russian hydrogen energy development.

Global hydrogen production — mainly based on coal and natural gas — is growing noticeably, but its share in the overall energy demand remains insignificant, Alexey Belogoryev says.

The use of hydrogen, primarily “green” hydrogen produced through water electrolysis, remains one of the key long‑term global ideas for decarbonizing transport and industry and partially decarbonizing the housing sector, the expert notes.

The main problem facing the hydrogen market is the high cost of production, Belogoryev points out. Hydrogen can still be produced relatively cheaply from coal and natural gas, but this does not solve the problem of greenhouse gas emissions.

“Green” hydrogen is unreasonably expensive, and its cost is decreasing slowly, the expert notes. He believes it will take another 10–15 years for the production costs of “dirty” and “clean” hydrogen to become equal. Another option is to develop the production of “blue” hydrogen (produced from gas) using carbon dioxide sequestration technologies, which are currently, in most cases, economically inefficient.

Yet another option is to use “yellow” hydrogen, produced by water electrolysis, but based on nuclear power generation, Belogoryev adds. However, such hydrogen is still not competitive in terms of price compared to “gray” and “black” hydrogen, which is produced from gas and coal, respectively.

In his opinion, Russia has high potential for developing the production of “blue” and “yellow” hydrogen for export, but there are no markets. China and India are following a path of self‑sufficiency, while the markets of Europe, Japan, and South Korea are closed to Russia for the coming years, the expert explains. He considers the prospects for generating significant demand in the domestic market to be questionable.