By Sergio Goncalves
LISBON (Reuters) - The European Union's goals for production of green hydrogen by 2030 are inflated and unrealistic, the CEO of Portugal's main utility EDP, said on Tuesday, citing regulatory uncertainty and slow progress so far.
The EU wants to produce 10 million tonnes of green hydrogen which is made using renewable energy, and import another 10 million by 2030. Its current production via electrolysis is less than 300,000 tonnes.
Hitting those targets would require massive investments to expand Europe's tiny fleet of electrolysers and install 150 to 210 GW of new renewable energy capacity to power them.
Speaking at a conference hosted by Expresso newspaper, Miguel Stilwell said that those goals for 2030 lack realism, since scaling up this new technology "will take time".
"There are inflated expectations about hydrogen, many targets are unrealistic," Stilwell said. "We are seeing 100 megawatt (MW) projects that could be operational in 2026 or 2027, but we are still far from gigawatt-scale projects."
Electrolysis - the key technology to produce renewable hydrogen - continues to be less competitive than fossil fuel alternatives such as natural gas, hindering its technological and market development.
The CEO said the financing rules and other regulations, crucial for the acceleration of technological development, were yet to materialise, creating uncertainty.
"That said, the truth is that EDP is investing in green hydrogen," he said.
EDP has started a pilot project in Brazil and, together with Portugal's oil & gas firm Galp Energia, plans to launch a hydrogen plant in Sines, south of Lisbon.
Last week, Portugal more than doubled its 2030 goals for installed capacity of electrolysers to produce green hydrogen 5.5 GW by 2030.