Articles
Ireland publishes a National Hydrogen Strategy
Dublin, 20 July 2023: Source Galileo welcomes the Government of Ireland’s publication of a National Hydrogen Strategy which sets out the vision for how hydrogen will be produced and used in Ireland. The strategy includes a major future role for hydrogen production from offshore wind, which provides Ireland with an opportunity to achieve energy independence and become a net exporter of energy in the form of green hydrogen and its derivatives.
The National Hydrogen Strategy is the first major policy statement on renewable hydrogen in Ireland and is an important milestone in the development of Ireland’s future hydrogen sector. Ireland has a legally binding target to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, and the strategy lays out how renewable hydrogen can play a significant role in achieving this target as a substitute for fossil fuels in sectors where electrification is not feasible or cost effective.
The strategy highlights that Ireland has one of the best offshore renewable energy resources in the world, and that harnessing offshore wind for production of hydrogen provides a significant opportunity to reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels, achieve energy independence, and become a net exporter of energy.
Source Galileo welcomes the inclusion of a target for 2 GW of hydrogen production from offshore wind to be in development by 2030, and the long-term ambition is to develop 20 GW of offshore renewable energy production by 2040 and at least 37 GW by 2050.
Source Galileo calls on the Government of Ireland to follow-up with further long-term targets for hydrogen specifically, to assist in delivering the energy transition and to capture Ireland’s opportunity to become a major future energy exporter. Key targets and actions contained in the Hydrogen Strategy should also be integrated into the Climate Action Plan 2024 and aligned with emerging climate policy in areas such as energy security, renewable development, interconnection, transport decarbonisation and industrial development policies.
The strategy sets out future actions to enable the development of hydrogen infrastructure such as pipeline networks and storage, initially focused on regional hydrogen clusters and expanding into a national hydrogen network. A national hydrogen network, combined with export infrastructure such as interconnectors and port infrastructure will also be critical to fully realising the potential of hydrogen for Ireland’s energy security and prosperity.
Contact details
Garrett Morrison
Chief Development Officer, Source Galileo
+44 (0) 7920 751516
garrett.morrison@sourcegalileo.com
