The role of power - to - hydrogen in carbon neutral energy and industrial systems: Case Finland

To combat climate change, decarbonization measures are undertaken across the whole energy sector. Industry and transportation sectors are seen as difficult sectors to decarbonize, with green hydrogen being proposed as a solution to achieve decarbonization in these sectors. While many methods of introducing hydrogen to these sectors are present in literature, few system-level works study the specific impacts of large-scale introduction has on power and heat sectors in an energy system. This contribution examines the effects of introducing hydrogen into a Finnish energy system in 2040 by conducting scenario simulations in EnergyPLAN - software. Primary energy consumption and CO2 emissions of the base scenario and hydrogen scenarios are compared. Additionally, the differences between a constant and flexible hydrogen production profile are studied. Introducing hydrogen increases electricity consumption by 31.9%, but reduces CO2 emissions by 71.5% and fossil energy consumption by 72.6%. The flexible hydrogen profile lowers renewable curtailment and improves energy efficiency but re-quires economically unfeasible hydrogen storage. Biomass consumption remains high and is not impacted significantly by the introduction of hydrogen. Additional measures in other sectors are needed to ensure carbon neutrality.

Automated summary

To combat climate change, decarbonization measures are undertaken across various sectors, including industry and transportation. This study examines the impact of introducing hydrogen into a Finnish energy system in 2040, using scenario simulations. The results show that introducing hydrogen can significantly reduce CO2 emissions and fossil energy consumption, but additional measures are needed to ensure carbon neutrality, as biomass consumption remains high.