Importing renewable energy to EU via hydrogen vector: Levelized cost of energy assessment

Abstract

European Green Deal sets the EU’s target towards becoming the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050. To achieve the 2050 Green Deal target, multi-combined actions are required, such as increasing renewable energy (RE) production in the EU, enhancing efficiency, and importing RE. The limited area, high population density, and geographical position constrain the EU’s RE self-sufficiency; in fact, the energy import dependency of the European Union (EU-27) reached 58.4% and 60.7% in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Interestingly, the final energy consumption by fuel comprises 23% of electricity and 77% of molecules. Consequently, a sustainable energy system requires not only green electricity but green molecules as well to move from fossil to electrified chemical industry (chemistree). In this context, the work analyses the LCOE of importing RE from Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia to selected locations in the EU namely Rome, Madrid, and Cologne, since they have both a well-established energy importing/exporting network with the EU and a high potential of RE sources. A promising LCOE of H2 is found in all importing scenarios with an average of 5.20 €/kgH2. Hydrogen transport via pipelines (0.14 €/kg/1000 km) is found to be the optimal solution for the studied cases. Further investigation is required for importing RE via other types of molecules and e-fuels such as ammonia, methanol, and methane from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to the EU