Prospects for renewable Hydrogen in the implementation of the EU hydrogen strategy in Sweden and Spain : An analysis of stock market companies

Sammanfattning: The future energy transition will reshape the current fossil energy system with low-carbon energy sources. The new technologies and State policies will promote the implementation of different energy carrier sources such as electricity, ammonia, biomass and hydrogen. However, volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity are defining a new global framework for energy systems. Despite Covid-19, the Russian and Ukrainian war, among other disruptive events, the pursuit of zero emissions remains one of the ambitions of the European Union, and renewable hydrogen has been selected to achieve these goals. The European Union through its Hydrogen Strategy aims to scale the hydrogen energy system based on renewable hydrogen in the coming years. For the present analysis, Sweden and Spain have been selected and it has been verified how the energy baseline, the national hydrogen strategies, and the main companies will shape the future hydrogen energy system of both countries. The selected method was a holistic qualitative and quantitative analysis of the energy systems of Sweden and Spain, focusing on the interactions inside and outside the energy system at the national level. The national strategies, the energy background of the countries, and the investments from the OMX-Stockholm30 stock exchange for Sweden and IBEX-35 for the Spanish case were analysed. Only bibliographic sources, internet news, and public reports from brokerage houses were used as material. The main results of the work show two very different ways of implementing national hydrogen policies. On the one hand, Sweden has high ambitions to produce renewable hydrogen up to 5 GW from electrolysers by 2030. Sweden is currently focusing its hydrogen energy system on renewable hydrogen steelmaking projects such as HYBRIT or GreenSteel. On the other hand, Spain has a lower national ambition with only 4 GW of electrolysers by 2030 according to its national roadmap. However, the IBEX-35 companies have already planned more than 13 GW of electrolyser capacity with the Catalina, SHYNE, HYDEAL projects, among others. The main investments will focus on sectors that are difficult to abate, such as oil & gas and fertilizers, and with the participation of the steel industry.