PKF attends H2 global conference in Hamburg

PKF has been active to promote renewable energy proposals and attract a number of interested investors gathered at the mammoth H2 Expo which it attended this week in Hamburg

PKF promoted Malta as a potential island where participants can seriously consider production of renewable energy from water, wind, currents and solar followed by the production and storage of hydrogen. Surely Malta’s own EEZ is an ideal offshore location. Many industry specialists attended the three-day H2 Expo and conference, held in parallel with Wind Energy Hamburg.

Certainly, H2 Expo is a prominent trade show for the wind and solar energy industry. Top speakers from the worlds of politics, economics and science participated and reported on current topics such as regulatory frameworks, technology and the future of green hydrogen. Key focal points covered the situation on the German and international markets, H2 import strategies and possibilities for the use of green hydrogen in industry, solar energy, logistics and mobility.

Needless to mention that the climate crisis and the Russian invasion in Ukraine intensifies the importance of offshore wind, solar energy to deliver alternative clean, sustainable and secure energy and pushes EU to guard against future energy Russian cutbacks. It is clear that a solution hovers around guaranteeing substantial parts of future energy generation and critical infrastructure.

This infrastructure is relocated to the maritime environment and outside territorial waters. The security and safety of this infrastructure are of imminent importance. Experts at the conference provided answers to questions of what are the threats and respectively what is the required protection from various angles.

Back home, last year, a law was passed to make provision for the establishment of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) or part thereof, enhancing environment protection area and for other ancillary matters thereto. The finance minister declared that this will constitute an exclusive economic zone which, if properly exploited could hold economic potential for "fisheries, artificial islands, wind farms, floating solar farms, wave-generated electricity and revenue from shipping movements”.

Have we finally discovered the route to El Dorado? Hold your horses – unless we secure substantial foreign investment, it remains a slogan. Thus, with a stroke of a pen, government announced that it identified a zone of shallow waters around Hurd’s Bank and a 6,500 sq.km belt around the island as two areas where it intends issuing concessions to private companies for the production of renewable energy and the production and storage of hydrogen.

It committed to fast-track planning permits for such projects to a maximum duration of three months from the submission of all required documents. The document suggests that the area around Hurd’s Bank is characterised by its relatively shallow waters. It is the jewel in our crown. In fact, the area of interest adjacent to Hurd’s Bank has a depth ranging from 50m to 100m, with an area of 900 sq.km. What are the benefits arising from exploitation of such exclusive zones?

At a time, when Europe is frantically looking for a greener alternative to burning fossil fuel, the next goal is the alternative use of green hydrogen. The production of hydrogen and green gases from renewable electricity is a promising solution because it allows the turnover of large amounts of energy. Nevertheless, only the combination of different storage solutions, smart grids, demand side management as well as flexible generation, will enable the transition to a renewable energy system.

This applies not only from a technological perspective, but also in terms of future energy affordability and security of supply. The popular term Power-to-gas is frequently heard in these circles. Simply put this means the conversion of electricity into hydrogen. This conversion makes renewable energies storable and they can be used flexibly over time. The regenerative gas produced can be used in a wide range of applications, such as in the industrial, mobility and heating sectors, as well as for reconversion.

The essential step of Power-togas involves splitting water (H2O) into hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2). The procedure is called electrolysis. It converts electrical energy into chemical energy. Using electricity from renewable energy sources for electrolysis enables so-called green hydrogen to be produced. This green hydrogen is climate-neutral, not only during combustion but also in its production. In a second stage, the hydrogen generated can be converted together with CO2 into methane (CH4) – a synthetic, climate neutral natural gas. Readers may ask what are the advantages of producing hydrogen and how can this partly solve the greening of our island’s ecology?

Hydrogen has the potential to be used efficiently in fuel cells and hydrogen-based energy storage systems. Obviously, integrating these systems with other renewable energy systems is becoming feasible. Regrettably Malta has been slow to exploit the advantages of wind farms – the main stumbling block is spatial area needs. It goes without saying that due to climate change and the global drive to de-carbonise our ecology, the demand for clean energy is unprecedented and the use of hydrogen fuel cells for the production of electricity is the ideal alternative.

Will the industrial production of hydrogen in the Hurd’s Bank facility prove to be our future vein of export revenue? The answer depends on whether Malta invests enough to produce hydrogen and store it in commercial quantities. In our situation, if an auction at the EEZ attracts foreign investors to generate electricity from renewable sources, the resulting hydrogen comes with numerous emissions benefits. Such hydrogen production pathways result in virtually zero greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions; however, the production cost needs to be decreased significantly to be competitive with more mature carbon-based pathways such as natural gas.

Take the example of Scotland, currently the world leader in the deployment of floating wind in its waters. It’s huge EEZ makes it one of the few countries in Europe that could host multiple projects of such scale and offer a vision of an offshore wind-to-hydrogen industry which would rival oil and gas in its heyday. Such advantages can also be reaped from use of floating solar farms, the latter have been under experimentation at our University but no prototypes have as yet been constructed and employed in territorial waters.

The journey to diversify electricity production using renewable energy is a long one as Malta started late in exploiting its EEZ but if Castille attracts the right investment this will help us mitigate climate change challenges.

“At a time, when Europe is frantically looking for a greener alternative to burning fossil fuel, the next goal is the alternative use of green hydrogen. The production of hydrogen and green gases from renewable electricity is a promising solution because it allows the turnover of large amounts of energy.”