The European Union’s goals to produce and import green hydrogen fuel are unrealistic and unlikely to be met despite billions of euros in funding, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) said on Wednesday.
The European Commission has set out targets to produce up to 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen by 2030 and import a further 10 million tonnes. While not binding, the goals are part of the bloc’s plans to end its reliance on Russian energy imports.
In a report, the ECA said those targets were based on “political will” rather than robust analysis, and the EU is far off track to meet them.
Another target set out by Brussels, to install at least 40 gigawatts of renewable hydrogen electrolyzers by 2030, was an idea suggested in documents by a hydrogen lobby group, the auditors found.
Despite EU funding of 18.8 billion euros ($20.5 billion)being made available for green hydrogen projects, projects that would add less than 5GW of production capacity by 2030 have reached an advanced stage, although projects totaling around 50GW of capacity are also at an earlier assessment stage.
