On the way to realising the much-discussed COP21 climate goals, decarbonising transport is key. Hydrogen offers promising opportunities for driving forward sustainable mobility and energy whilst being profitable – as recent findings affirm.

The energy transition is on the way. Multiple technologies are already maturing to help reach the emission reduction objectives set by the Paris Agreement. Hydrogen technologies are one of them.

As an energy carrier, it allows for the decarbonisation of transport, for heating, and the storage of energy from intermittent renewable energy sources. One of the biggest challenges to enhance the energy transition is to find profitable business cases to integrate these technologies into the wider energy system.

The EU goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95% implies reducing transport emissions by 60% by 2050. In fact, the mobility sector is particularly difficult to decarbonise in Europe. Hydrogen mobility is an important part of the solution but it is, however, facing the chicken or egg problem. On one side, investors are not ready to invest in hydrogen refuelling stations (HRS) yet because there is only a small amount of cars on the road; on the other side, car manufacturers do not want to deploy vehicles in regions with a low density HRS network. Currently, stations are financed mostly by public-private partnerships.