Vodíkové hospodářství v Česku se teprve rodí a Česká republika patří k zemím, které v současné době pracují na budování vodíkového ekosystému. Zatímco Evropská komise a evropská legislativa počítají při prosazování dekarbonizace a posilování energetické odolnosti EU především s obnovitelným vodíkem, pro ČR je spoléhání se čistě na obnovitelný vodík problematické. Proto HYTEP připravil dokument, ve kterém pro české tvůrce politiky a české zástupce při EU, shrnuje, proč je pro ČR nízkouhlíkový vodík důležitý. 

Protože Česko nemá dostatečně vysoký podíl obnovitelných zdrojů energie, aby bylo schopno v dostatečném objemu v nejbližších letech vyrábět obnovitelný vodík a dokud nebude zajištěn dovoz vodíku, domníváme se, že je nezbytné, aby – minimálně v počáteční fázi budování vodíkového hospodářství – byl v Unii podpořen více i nízkouhlíkový vodík.
Vedle uvedených argumentů chceme také zmínit, že využití nízkouhlíkového vodíku předpokládá i revidovaná Vodíková strategie ČR, která bude zveřejněna v tomto roce.

To nicméně neznamená, že by ČR měla na své cíle v oblasti obnovitelného vodíku zapomenout. Právě naopak. Budoucnost je v možnosti kombinace jak nízkouhlíkového, tak obnovitelného vodíku, jenže právě tato kombinace je nyní unijní legislativou omezena a závazné cíle je prakticky možné plnit jen obnovitelným vodíkem. To vnímáme jako největší problém současné regulace.

Níže uvádíme některé argumenty a doporučení, které jsme v HYTEP připravili. Celý dokument “Position paper of the Czech Hydrogen Technology Platform on Creating level-playing field for low-carbon hydrogen compared to renewable hydrogen and low-carbon hydrogen production rules” je k dispozici členům HYTEP. Dokument je v angličtině, proto i následující citace z dokumentu jsou v angličtině: 

„Position to support low-carbon hydrogen (LCH) is particularly important for Member States like the Czech Republic, which don’t have access to cheap renewable electricity due to geographical and climate constraints and which do not have the possibility to import enough renewable hydrogen at an affordable price to meet requirements of European directives and regulations by 2030. Producing renewable hydrogen domestically in the Czech Republic is economically unfeasible compared to countries with higher shares of renewable energy sources and better climate conditions, resulting in production price of well over 15 € per kilogram. Apart from worse climate conditions leading to higher prices for RES in general, Czech Republic is lagging on wind energy expansion. Lack of wind energy combined with stringent RFNBO rules for temporal corelation, and additionality create a condition where it is more challenging to produce RFNBO and thus meet RED targets, especially until 2030. This issue is even more striking when considering that no hydrogen pipeline transport will be available until 2030. Even after 2030 the lack of plan for distribution of clean hydrogen to demand centres is apparent, leading to projects focusing more on the consumption of hydrogen where it locally is produced. 

The Czech Republic aims to support both new renewable as well as nuclear electricity generation up until 2050. 

… 

We believe that in a situation where Member States without abundant renewable energy sources cannot import renewable hydrogen and domestic production is limited by climate and geographic conditions, LCH could help temporarily solve the issue of hydrogen market creation even in Member States without access to sufficient renewable hydrogen at an affordable price. Such requirement is not only in line with sustainability principle and maintaining the competitiveness of the Czech industry but is also in line with the basic principles of energy policy of the European Union and rights of each Member State. 

… 

We believe that the overall strategy of the Czech Republic towards LCH use and production should: 

• Push for technology neutral approach (provided such technology is low-carbon) which should be applied to all directives and regulation in the next revisions, creating level-playing field in EU legislation. 
• Allow LCH to be counted toward GHG reduction targets in RED, while simultaneously push for change in RED approach toward clean energy. 
• Aim to Introduce multiplicators (if necessary) for renewable hydrogen to incentivize production from RES over LCH. Such rules could be potentially applied in next revision of RED. 
• Call for creation of robust methodology to support adequate accounting of GHG emissions for renewable and LCH production to address arguments against LCH production and use, including methane and hydrogen leakage. 
• Allow member states, where low-emission electricity is being produced mostly via nuclear electricity (for example France), to produce LCH over RFNBO through electrolysis of water in a similar way to current 90 % threshold of RES in bidding zone for production of RFNBO without the requirement to apply temporal, geographical and additionality rules. 
• Let market decide, where each production pathway is appropriate, focus on creating market for hydrogen and cross-border trade via pipelines, incentivise (to the extent applied in current Gas package) renewable hydrogen through possible higher reductions of tariffs for network access. 
• Focus on Member States with similar approach to LCH and create a coalition to push European Union to create less strict regulatory framework. 
• If less technology-neutral position prevails between the member states positions, at least focus on creating level-playing field for nuclear electricity and production of hydrogen through electrolysis.“