The report describes the energy scenarios created by RSE in 2021 to support the development of the Italian Hydrogen Strategy, still to be published by the Italian government. A system approach was used to assess the opportunities for developing hydrogen in the Italian energy system, also analyzing possible synergies and impacts on the electrical system.
In 2020, the European Commission adopted a new hydrogen strategy which covers different lines of action, ranging from research and innovation, to production and infrastructure, as well as to international initiatives. The strategy explores how the production and use of hydrogen from renewable sources can help decarbonize the EU economy in a cost-effective way, in line with the European Green Deal. According to the European Strategy and the Italian Preliminary Guidelines for Hydrogen, RSE developed some energy scenarios to support the definition of a national strategy for hydrogen. The work is part of the support activity for the governance of the energy system that RSE has been providing to institutions for years.
The energy scenarios are built with a view to increasing the decarbonization targets provided for by the European Green Deal program, and reflect the measures contained in the Italian Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) published in May 2021, which provides for specific investments in the development of the hydrogen supply chain in Italy.
The electrical system will be particularly involved in the transformation process. In fact, impact analyses on the electrical system show the growing need to resort to new flexibility resources for the safe operation of the system. In this context, the production of hydrogen from renewable energy sources gives the possibility of transforming a system issue, such as the overproduction of electricity from RES, into a flexibility solution, while at the same time producing an indispensable vector for the decarbonization of sectors defined as “hard to abate”.