Roadmap for Hydrogen Economy in Ukraine: INTEGRITES and EUEA hold a conference

On 12 November 2020 INTEGRITES jointly with European-Ukrainian Energy Agency (EUEA) hold an online conference “Hydrogen Economy in Ukraine: Roadmap”. The goal of the event was to give a place for the key energy stakeholders from private and public sectors to discuss the development of the hydrogen sector in Ukraine and practical aspects of its implementation.

The event gathered 13 speakers – representatives from the Ukrainian state authorities, business, gas and energy sectors as well as the largest investors into RES in Ukraine and IFIs from Germany, Portugal, Finland, the USA and 250+ participants (please find the list below). The conference included 3 sessions devoted to discussion of the best international strategies, political plans on internal market developing and international cooperation, opportunities and initiatives of the public sector in the hydrogen sector.

Olga Buslavets, acting Minister of Energy and Environmental Protection, in the welcome speech mentioned that Ukraine had an ambitious goal to decarbonize energy, industrial and transport sectors. “Green” hydrogen will ensure the achievement of this goal. The Ministry has already developed a roadmap for Ukraine’s hydrogen energy and outlined its primary goals among which are development of regulatory framework, introduction of standardization system as well as safety requirements for hydrogen production, storage and transportation.

The speakers told about the current developments in the sector, defined the main points for the hydrogen economy strategy in Ukraine, confirmed that the pipeline infrastructure is ready to transit hydrogen mixed with the natural gas. A speaker from the USA, a country with a well-developed hydrogen economy in California and the east coast, shared their practices in this field.

Dr. Oleksiy Feliv, Managing Partner at INTEGRITES, event’s moderator: “The European Union (the EU) named Ukraine as one of the priority partners of the European Hydrogen Strategy until 2050 due to the country’s potential to produce “green” hydrogen and the existing gas transmission infrastructure connected to the European countries. The EU has already allocated 10GW of capacity for “green” hydrogen production which potentially can bring EUR 20 bln of investments into the country. So, we believe that now it is a high time to start the dialogue between the key energy stakeholders”.

Dr. Oleh Zahnitko, Partner at INTEGRITES, event’s moderator: “We are glad to start the focused discussion of current dynamics. The green and blue hydrogen-related sectors are in their inception and require incentives that are aligned with those in the EU Hydrogen Strategy to enable industrial scaling and driving down the costs with a potential to beat current costs of grey hydrogen. 2 x 40 GW vision provides for an export-driven production in Ukraine that will finance and pick up domestic demand. Thus, proper strategy and policy based on EU acquis may give a boost to the engineering, localization of OEM and other important links for “green” hydrogen supply chain sparkling investment opportunities in the machine-building as well as road, rail, sea and river transportation, modernization of gas transmission system etc. INTEGRITES plans to continue with a series of expert presentations to unpack the technology, its investment prospective and policy trends.”

Speakers Olga Buslavets Ministry of Energy of Ukraine, Acting Minister, First Deputy Minister Oleksandra Gumeniuk EUEA, Director Oleksandr Riepkin Ukrainian Hydrogen Council, President Saara Kujala Wärtsilä Energy Business, General Manager, Business Development Olexii Ivanchenko UkraineInvest, Deputy Executive Director Oleksandr Diachuk National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Leading Research Officer, Institute for Economics and Forecasting Mykola Kadenskyi Transmission System Operator (Ukraine), Head of Network Development Department Yuriy Kamelchuk Parliamentary Committee on Energy, Housing and Public utilities (Ukraine), MP Jan Wegener NOW GmbH, Programme Manager Europe Marc Rechter Resilient Group, Co-Founder and CEO, Co-Chair of the Production Roundtable of the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance Stanislav Kazda RGC, Strategic Development Director Kostiantyn Gura State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine (SAEE), Acting Head Jay Loughney Air Products, Global Product Development Manager Moderators Oleksiy Feliv INTEGRITES, Managing Partner Oleh Zahnitko INTEGRITES, Partner

Presentations   Design of the National Hydrogen Policy Oleksandra Gumeniuk, EUEA The value of Gas TSO infrastructure in the energy transition Mykola Kadenskyi, Transmission System Operator (Ukraine) Ukrainian hydrogen strategy: current developments Oleksandr Riepkin, Ukrainian Hydrogen Council Green Hydrogen – A Transformational Opportunity for Ukraine Marc Rechter, Resilient Group (Portugal) Germany's Approach to a National Hydrogen Strategy Jan Wegener, NOW GmbH (Germany) Power-to-x fuels. Market potential and economic viability Saara Kujala, Wärtsilä Energy Business Why hydrogen economy has to be based on economic modelling? Oleksandr Diachuk, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Air Products: Driving the H2 Economy with Green H2 Jay Loughney, Air Products RGC hydrogen project: getting the gas networks ready for clean energy Stanislav Kazda, RGC

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*Particularly focused on renewables, INTEGRITES is a full-service law firm representing the biggest international clients in EUR 3 billion worth wind and solar power projects in Ukraine with the cumulative 3+ GW capacity. For more information visit www.integrites.com.

**EUEA is an independent industry association, which joins the biggest foreign and Ukrainian investors in renewable energy, and since 2009, EUEA has grown into an effective advocate for the realization of Ukraine’s massive renewable energy and energy efficiency potential, by working within Ukraine’s business community, government structures, and with other key energy market stakeholders. www.euea-energyagency.org