Fig. 3: Green hydrogen deployment under renewable expansion scenarios and its impacts on natural gas displacement, emissions, and cost trajectories.
From: Aligning EU energy security and climate mitigation through targeted transition strategies
a Reduction in natural gas reliance (%) in the EU through green hydrogen deployment based on gross inland consumption under different solar and wind power growth scenarios. b Cumulative avoided emissions (MtCO2) in the EU through the reduction in natural gas consumption based on green hydrogen deployment under different solar and wind power growth scenarios. c Cumulative avoided emissions (MtCO2) in the EU through the reduction in natural gas consumption based on the use of green hydrogen in heavy industrial sectors including iron and steel, non-ferrous metal, non-metallic minerals (constituting cement/clinker, lime-burning, container glass, flat glass), paper, pulp, and printing (constituting board and packaging paper, graphic paper, tissue paper, chemical pulp, and recovered fibers), refining and chemicals (constituting refining, ammonia, methanol, and other chemicals), and the operation of heavy trucks in the road transportation sector by 2050 under the BAU and FULL scenarios for solar and wind capacity expansion. d Levelized cost of hydrogen ($ kgH2-1) through solar power expansion in 2024 and under a fast trajectory for increasing cost-competitiveness in 2050. e Levelized cost of hydrogen ($ kgH2-1) through wind power expansion in 2024 and under a fast trajectory for increasing cost-competitiveness in 2050. f Total annual cost of hydrogen production ($bn) under different scenarios for renewable capacity expansion and varying trajectories for increasing cost-competitiveness till 2050. g Total reduction in EU natural gas reliance based on the use of green hydrogen in various heavy industries including iron and steel, non-ferrous metal, cement/clinker, lime-burning, container glass, flat glass, board and packaging paper, graphic paper, tissue paper, chemical pulp, and recovered fibers, refining, ammonia, methanol, other chemicals, and the operation of heavy trucks in the road transportation sector through 2050 under the BAU and FULL scenarios for solar and wind capacity expansion. The maps were created using the Flourish Studio visualization tool.
