Development of Hydrogen Technologies in Ukraine and the World Conference results

The first annual international conference “Development of Hydrogen Technologies in Ukraine and the World” took place on the 25^th of February, 2021 and was dedicated to the 3^rd anniversary of foundation of the Energy Association “Ukrainian Hydrogen Council”.

Representatives from institutions of the European Union, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Germany, Poland, Japan and other countries took part in the online event. In total more than 600 interested participants took part in the discussion and watched the video conference in social networks on the page of the Ukrainian Hydrogen Council:

Facebook (in Ukrainian): https://fb.watch/3UJ_qHRnzL/ 

YouTube (in English): https://youtu.be/FXNENVw3jy0

Within the framework of the event representatives of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, relevant ministries, central executive bodies, diplomatic corps of Ukraine, guests from the European Association “Hydrogen Europe”, the German Energy Agency (dena), the Polish Cluster of Hydrogen Technologies, the German company Siemens Energy, the Japanese corporations Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Toshiba discussed the issues of the latest hydrogen energy development trends, in particular:

Olha Stefanishyna, the Deputy Prime Minister for the European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine:

“Today we have good results – first of all, honourable participants of the event, and, of course, displaying of Ukraine as a priority country for development of hydrogen technologies in Europe”.

Mrs. Stefanishyna also pointed out that the development of hydrogen technologies is one of the key directions, indicated in project of the National Economic Strategy 2030, which will soon be approved.

“I believe that hydrogen will be the uniting element, which gas once was. That is why the ones, who are promoting hydrogen today, are really building the security and energy architecture for tomorrow”, - emphasized Dmytro Kuleba, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

During his welcome speech Yurii Kamelchuk, a people’s deputy of Ukraine, a member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on the issues of energy and housing and public utility services, noted:

“I want to assure you that we understand the importance of development of hydrogen energy, as this means new opportunities for balancing the energy system, for investing in hydrogen infrastructure, huge prospects for production, use in transport and logistics , as well as great opportunities for attracting investment to Ukraine”.

Yaroslav Demchenkov, the Deputy Minister of Energy of Ukraine for European Integration, also took part in opening the conference:

“Hydrogen is the most promising sustainable energy carrier for Green Energy Transformation. It is very important for us today, especially in a time of the COVID-19 pandemic and its negative impact of the energy system and economy as a whole, not to forget that we are at the stage of green energy transformation and we shall not stop this transformation”.

Moreover, Mr. Demchenkov told the participants about the next steps of the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine concerning the hydrogen energy development.

According to Mr. Demchenkov, the plans for this year include the preparation of the hydrogen strategy, which will be developed with the help of national experts and competent international companies, in particular, with the support of the World Bank, start of scientific and technical research concerning hydrogen production and its transportation via the Ukrainian gas transmission network, as well as preparation of pilot projects. Plans for the next year include the launch of these projects with a full hydrogen cycle: production, transportation and use in the domestic market, and for export as well.

Kostiantyn Hura, the acting Head of the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine in his welcome speech underlined that energy decarbonization is the today’s global trend and it is important to understand that it is both environmentally-friendly and economically-sound:

“When talking about the green transition, we have to understand that this is cost-efficient and this is, of course, investment in the future of our planet”.

Oleksii Riabchyn, the Adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister for the European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, underlined that the next task for Ukraine has to be the development of technical standards of regulation, building code, security issues.

Oleksandr Riepkin, the  President of the Energy Association “Ukrainian Hydrogen Council”, the Adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on Hydrogen Economy, told the participants about the conditions of foundation, goals and results of activity of the Ukrainian Hydrogen Council, as well as about the priorities and prospects for Ukraine in the field of hydrogen energy¹.

“Our highest goal is to change economic models of Ukraine. We strongly believe that using hydrogen technologies we can become not a raw material base, but an export country and become a reliable partner in supplying energy resources to the EU countries”, - noted Mr. Riepkin.

Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, the Secretary General of Hydrogen Europe, underlined that many European countries and other countries of the world have been developing or have already adopted the national hydrogen strategy. In particular, six EU countries have officially adopted the H2 strategy, and 9 more are under development.

Kyrylo Tomliak, a representative of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD):

“The EBRD understands the importance of this sector as a whole. First of all, in part of hydrogen opportunities as a tool for decarbonization of the sectors of industry, which are difficult to decarbonize in any other way. We are talking, first of all, about metallurgy, chemical industry, oil refining, transport. The hydrogen topic is reflected in internal documents of the bank”.

Rio Tisiro, a representative of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, informed that in 2017 the Ministerial Council on Renewable Energy, Hydrogen and Related Issues made a decision to develop a basic hydrogen strategy to become the world’s leading hydrogen society. In late 2020 it adopted the Green Growth Strategy, which is aimed at achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

Shoei Matsuda, a representative of Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation, noted that today the corporation is focused on the areas of activity, where hydrogen can be used.

Joerg Doerner, in his turn, a representative of the Siemens Energy AG, noted that one of new aspects of work of the company have become new types of energy, within the framework of which the attention is mainly focused on green hydrogen. Viacheslav Marchenko, the managing director of  Siemens Energy (Ukraine), noted main conditions for a competitive production of green hydrogen in Ukraine.

“It is worth noting that it is almost for the first time in the history of the Ukrainian diplomatic activity that we do not hurry after, but keep pace with the leading countries in the direction of climatic neutrality”, - underlined Mykola Tochytskyi, a representative of Ukraine in the European Union, the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Ukraine to the Kingdom of Belgium and the grand Duchy of Luxembourg during his speech.

 

¹ Presentation by Oleksandr Riepkin is available by reference.