German E.ON Calls for Green Gas Quota

German utility E.ON is calling on Berlin to set a green gas quota, in the run-up to the July 9 inaugural meeting of the national hydrogen council which the government has set up. The share of fossil gases must continually decline and that of green gas increase, it said July 6. "The introduction of a technology- and origin-neutral quota for green gas can help achieve this."

E.ON's network operations head said: “If we want to be fully decarbonised by 2050, gas needs to progressively become green. Alongside the direct use of renewable electricity, green gas will become a key facet of the energy transition. This will require a stable long-term regulatory environment and laws that promote investment. E.ON will support the scale-up of green gas along the entire value chain in order to help Europe achieve carbon neutrality in industry, transport and, over the long term, in buildings by 2050.”

Hydrogen will account for a large proportion of green gases and it will make an important contribution to emission reduction in cases where direct electrification is not technically feasible or sensible, E.ON says. E.ON intends to leverage its existing infrastructure and its many years of expertise in both the electricity and gas sectors to be a pacesetter in hydrogen technology, it said.

A senior E.ON executive who sits on the federal government’s National Hydrogen Council, Katherina Reiche, said: “We aim to blend the desired amount of green gas with the natural gas in our distribution networks or, if necessary, to supply 100% hydrogen. We’ve already launched a number of regional projects across the group and are working to make our networks hydrogen-ready.”

Thyssenkrupp is developing large-scale electrolysis units that may be connected to E.ON’s virtual power plant so that it can sell power if the price is high enough, or generate hydrogen when prices fall.

Blue hydrogen, which is produced from natural gas with carbon capture and storage and therefore carbon neutral, is not covered by Germany's hydrogen strategy, to the dismay of the country's natural gas industry. Conversely, green hydrogen, if produced from wind or solar energy, may also entail carbon emissions.