Oleksandr Riepkin took part in the 12th International Ukrainian Energy Forum of the Adam Smith Institute

Yesterday, July 14, Oleksandr Repkin, President of the Energy Association "Ukrainian Hydrogen Council", told about Ukraine's prospects for hydrogen production, transportation and use during the fourth session on the hydrogen economy of the Ukrainian Energy Forum.

"Working on the hydrogen topic in Ukraine, we should turn to the already adopted EU documents, in which Ukraine is identified as one of the strategic partners. These are the European Green Deal, the European Hydrogen Strategy and the 2x40 GW Green Hydrogen Initiative”.

Due to significant potential, 10 GW of new capacity for the production of "green" hydrogen is allocated for Ukraine, of which 7.5 GW should work for export, and 2.5 GW to form the domestic market.

"We need to use this opportunity to become a full-fledged player in the energy market," said Mr. Riepkin.

During the speech, Oleksandr Riepkin reported on the work on the preparation of the National Hydrogen Strategy. In particular, a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister of Ukraine on this issue was held last month, as a result of which it was instructed to establish a working group to prepare a draft Strategy.

"We hope that the National Hydrogen Strategy will appear this year. The professional environment responded very actively to participate in this process. I think that in the near future the experts involved in the working group will be able to present their developments and discuss them publicly."

Hydrogen transportation is also an important issue. First of all, Ukraine has a well-developed gas transmission system that can be used for this purpose, on which the Ukrainian Hydrogen Council is actively cooperating with the GTS Operator of Ukraine. Another way of transportation is to use the potential of the Danube, in particular in the framework of the Blue Danube project.

In addition, a mature European Hydrogen Backbone can be created by 2040. as part of the European Hydrogen Backbone initiative, to which Ukraine also has a chance to join.

At the end of the speech, Oleksandr Riepkin noted that now it is also necessary to work on the study of the Ukrainian gas transportation system, as well as to assess the impact of green hydrogen production on the environment.