Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Communities

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Communities can play an important role in smoothing the path for the introduction of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies: they are disposed to long-term thinking, considering the wider potential benefits from H2FC adoption, they have ready channels for increasing public awareness and support of these technologies, and they provide a natural framework for fostering similar activities in the field, leading to the development of innovation clusters.

Hydrogen Community

A hydrogen community is defined as a geographic community in which hydrogen and related technology represent solutions for addressing a given set of socio-economic and energy interests of the community. Moreover, it is a community whose characteristics engender the sustained adoption of the technology in the long term, whether internally or outside the community.

Hydrogen communities can be considered as a special case of Sustainable Energy Communities (SECs)^[1], focused around the development and use of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.

Identified Potential Hydrogen Communities in Europe

Potential hydrogen communities refer to sites that are early adopters of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, having the potential to lead to a coordinated, larger scale adoption of such technologies within a coherent end-user grouping. They have been identified on the basis of three main characteristics:

• A clear focus on deployment and/or directly meeting end-user energy needs trough integrated hydrogen-related energy conversion systems and pathways
• Strong stakeholder participation as demonstrated through an ongoing cooperation between local authorities, local agencies, economic operators and other local stakeholders
• Potential long term sustainability of the project/initiative

The Roads2HyCom project [1] has identified thirty six potential hydrogen communities in Europe.

Map of identified potential hydrogen communities in Europe

Types of H₂FC Applications and End-user Sectors

The deployment of end-user applications in real-world functions or pilot projects, as opposed to a research and development test, is one of the features that have been retained for communities to qualify as potential hydrogen communities. Depending on the end-use sector(s) targeted for hydrogen and fuel cell technology deployment, the application may be classed as:

• Transport application^[2]
• Stationary application^[3]
• Multiple applications^[4]

Multiple applications mean a combination of transport and stationary applications are deployed on large scale in the community. Table below gives an overview of the technology application types and the end-use sectors where they may be used.

Table: Types of hydrogen and fuel cell applications and related end-use sectors

Analysis of the thirty six identified potential hydrogen communities ^[5] in Europe shows that the majority have deployed both stationary and transport applications (see figure below).

Proportion of potential hydrogen communities deploying a given type(s) of application

Development Status of Potential H₂ Communities

Analysis of the 36 potential hydrogen communities^[5] indicates that three quarters of these are still in the planning phase (proposal or initiation) (see figure below). This reflects the status of technological development of the hydrogen and fuel cell field, which is just beginning to move from the development and demonstration phases to actual deployment.

Development status of potential hydrogen communities in Europe

Main Types of H₂ Communities

Three main community types have been identified, based primarily on geographic size, population density (implied energy intensity), and remoteness (in terms of connection to energy networks).

Classification of potential hydrogen communities according to community type

• Island-type community:An island-type community is identified primarily by its remoteness in terms of connection to energy networks, and refers not only to islands in the strict geographic sense but to any community that is isolated from major energy networks or centres. Administratively speaking however, islands may be towns, cities, regions or even countries.
• City-type community:A city-type community is a highly urbanised environment, identified by its relatively high population density and energy intensity. In geographic terms a city-type community generally coincides with the city administrative area.
• Region-type community:A region-type community is identified by its geographic size and administrative area, which encompasses several cities and/or towns, and is generally of lower population density and energy intensity than a city.

In looking at the prevalence of community types (refer figure), islands are in rather smaller proportion compared to regions and cities, probably because they constitute a kind of niche hydrogen community, with relatively smaller markets for hydrogen deployment. Regions are somewhat more dominant than cities, accounting for almost half of the identified potential hydrogen communities. Regions represent an important community type, since in many countries, such as Germany and Spain, they have a high level of autonomy. This autonomy includes decision-making powers on budget allocation, some of which can be directed at deployment of innovative technologies. This is important since the majority of hydrogen technologies/applications are not yet commercial and their deployment can be significantly facilitated in the early stages, if supported by investment from public authorities.

Requirements for successful integraton of H₂FC technologies in Communities

Successful integration of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies requires not only that the community be well-disposed to accommodate the disruptive technology, but also that the technologies improve the welfare of the community. That is the following must be present:

• Driver: The community’s driver (or need) represents the driving force or motivation of a community in exploring or implementing hydrogen and/or fuel cell (H₂FC) applications.
• Capacity: The capacity of a community reflects the inherent capability of a community to accommodate and integrate disruptive energy technologies (e.g. H₂-FC) within their energy system. This includes the ability to cope with all the technical and economic implications associated with their implementation.

Factors for assessing Readiness of a Community to adapt H₂FC Technologies

The developed Methodology for communities’ assessment is based on a number of factors (so-called metrics) that measure a community’s readiness to successfully integrate hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.

Communities are characterised by different priorities. They are, therefore, driven by different needs when considering the implementation of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies to respond to some of their most pressing socio-economic and energy-related concerns. For instance, some communities can be more concerned with economic growth and employment related to energy industries, while others are more interested in improving their local air quality or ensuring a more secure energy supply. The following Driver-related metrics have been retained to assess the need for a community to successfully integrate hydrogen and fuel cell technologies:

• Global environmental impact of energy use, which measures the community’s need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (especially CO2), as evidenced for e.g. by CO2 reduction policies and targets of the community
• Local environmental impact of energy use, which measures the community’s need to improve the surrounding environmental quality, namely by reducing local air pollution; this may be indicated by an existing air quality problem or policies directed at air pollution reduction
• Energy demand needs, which measures the communities need for increased future energy supplied that may provide opportunities for hydrogen and fuel cell technologies; as evidenced for e.g. by forecasted energy demand increases or growth in energy-related sectors, such as transport
• Cost of energy service, which measures the expectations for cost-competitiveness of energy delivered using H2FC application versus alternatives that provide similar socio-economic benefits as H2FC, as evidenced by the time line for commercialisation of the specific H2FC application, on the basis of information from the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Platform [2]
• Security and sustainability of energy supply, which measures the community’s need to reduce its dependence on external energy supplies, as evidenced by a current high level of energy dependence or perhaps programmes to promote energy independence for the community
• Economic growth, which measures the community’s need for economic growth and job creation, as evidenced by current levels of unemployment and the potential of a developed H2FC sector to result in new businesses and jobs.

Those communities that have invested in a high tech energy sector, and have already gained some experience in innovative energy projects, would have a competitive advantage to successfully deploy hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. This inherent ability of the community to deploy H2FC technology is measured by the following Capacity-related metrics:

• Access to technology and expertise, which measures the ease with which the community can procure the necessary technology and technical assistance, as indicated by the number of equipment manufacturers and suppliers, locally-situated or active within the community
• Acceptance in the community, which measures to what extent citizens are neutral, or even in favour of, the integration of such technologies within the community. Those communities, which have successfully implemented visible innovative energy projects would be in a more favourable position
• Political will in the community, which measures the support from the local political authorities to the integration of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in the community. This metric refers both to hard financial support (financial incentives for R&D, demonstration projects, end-users), and expressed political support (e.g. public documents, which confirm the political authorities’ will to promote this sector)
• Potential to form innovation cluster, which measures the community’s potential for long term sustainability, thanks to the presence of companies, universities, research institutes and other organisations within the region that create a self-reinforcing support network.

Table below shows the categorisation of each of the above metrics as either Driver or Capacity in relation to a community. It also gives a general definition of each metric when assessing and profiling community sites.

Table: The metrics relevant to hydrogen and fuel cell technology adoption (C: Capacity; D: Driver)

Methodology for Assessment of Communities

The proposed methodology to assess a community's readiness to successfully implement hydrogen and fuel cell related technologies is based on evaluating a set of metrics (Please refer: Factors for assessing Readyness of a Community to adapt H₂FC Technologies). The assessment of sites as Hydrogen community^[6] is done in two stages:

• The site is evaluated on a Macro-level^[7] to determine the general climate for adoption of energy technologies, considered as disruptive and/or as offering a more environmentally friendly alternative to the status quo
• The site is evaluated with respect to its favourability (or otherwise) for uptake of H2FC for a given energy demand sector, whether stationary^[3] (industrial, residential etc.), or transport^[2] (public/private passenger vehicles, private fleets etc.). This second level is referred to as the Micro-level^[8]

Rating

Each metric is assessed and scored on a scale of 0 to 4; 0 being "not possible to assess" or "not relevant to the community", and 1 to 4 representing increasing extents to which the community measures up in light of the Driver and Capacity metric under consideration, thus:

Relative Importance of Metrics according to Community Type

The Ratings for all Driver metrics are aggregated into a single overall driver score. Similarly all Capacity metric ratings are aggregated into a single overall capacity score.

In aggregating the individual metric Ratings, relative weightings are applied, according to the extent to which each metric is important for the particular community type in question. It can be expected, for example, that Metric 10 "Security and sustainability" will be a more important driver for islands/isolated areas, compared to cities or regions. The most relevant "drivers" and "capacities" for the various types of community have been determined, and are presented in Table below. Here, "++" indicates a weighting of 30% or more, "+" indicates a weighting of 20%-30%, blank means a weighting of less than 20%.

Table: Relative importance of metrics and indicative relative weightings used in the assessment of "driver" and "capacity" for different community types

There are typically 1-2 dominant capacities per community type, with metric 9 "political will" being a recurrent dominant capacity across all community types. The differences across the community types are more pronounced with respect to drivers, islands and cities having few, very dominant drivers, and regions having a larger number of more evenly-weighted drivers. "Capacity and availability" is an important driving factor for all three community types, as it essentially dictates the scope for new/alternative energies of any type, and thus the maximum opportunities available for H₂FC integration.

Representation of Community Profile

Profiling of communities according to driver and capacity

The overall aggregated score that a site gets for Driver and Capacity enables the characterisation of any given site according to one of four possible “profiles”, as illustrated in the two-by-two matrix, in Figure 4.

The profile gives an initial indication as to the potential for hydrogen uptake in a given community system so as to form a Hydrogen community^[6]. A site with a high “hydrogen community” potential would have a high Driver for deploying and taking advantage of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, and a high Capacity to actually adopt or integrate these applications in their energy system. Such a site would be located in the solid green quadrant in the diagram (top-right quadrant).

Advice on Success Factors

• The support of local public authorities is fundamental to enable the quick start of hydrogen energy integration, from the financing of visible and well-targeted demonstration H2FC projects to the setting up of larger H2FC initiatives, within a broader sustainable energy framework
• It is important to successfully target the end-use sectors that offer the best opportunities for using H2FC as a means of responding to certain socio-economic and energy interests. Smart targeting of end-use sectors will be critical in the early development stages of a community, for generating useful experience and confidence that H2FC can have a meaningful contribution to meeting the community’s energy needs.
• The creation of public-private partnerships is an important step to enable successful hydrogen adoption. A successful public-private partnership should be based on balanced involvement from local public authorities, and the local industry, while keeping citizens informed and recognising their concerns.
• In order to ensure that the development of the H₂FC sector is in line with the community’s long term objectives, a long term strategy, to be agreed by the main public and industry stakeholders, should form the basis of the hydrogen energy initiative.

Case of Communities characterized by High Capacity and Low Driver

Drivers reflect an existing or imminent situation (need) of the community, as a result of past actions, and, by definition are not controlled by the community. Drivers are thus a reaction of the community to an existing negative situation. It is important, however, that a sufficiently long term outlook is adopted to pre-empt future negative situations arising. This can result in new or increased drivers for H2FC adoption as a proactive rather than reactive measure. For example, the integration of H2FC in the transport sector as a proactive measure for expected energy demand growth in that sector, and for tackling the resulting air quality degradation.

Low driver communities should thus be careful to ensure that they have a sufficiently long term perspective or long term strategy to better account for the potential benefits of adopting H2FC technologies, compared to alternative shorter term options.

Case of Communities characterized by Low Capacity and High Driver

The low capacity of these sites is typically a result of lack of interest or backing from local public authorities. Strong public-private partnership involving local industries, public authorities, and citizens are key in such cases, to mobilise and actively involve public authorities and citizens. Well-targeted, multi-stakeholder demonstration and deployment projects will create a sense of ownership amongst public authorities and citizens and thus be central for further development into a hydrogen community.

Case of Islands

In order to obtain a critical mass for integration of hydrogen energy, island-type communities should consider targeting multiple end-use sectors. This would enhance the impacts that H2FC adoption can have with respect to the need to improve security of supply and create jobs. In addition, a particular characteristic of islands and remote areas is the possibility of abundant or stranded renewable energy sources. A hydrogen sector that is able to capitalise on these energy sources would have greater chances of long term success.

The main risk, which could hinder successful hydrogen uptake in an island-type community, is its difficulty in developing and keeping knowledge within the community. This type of community should therefore focus on developing knowledge and expertise through demonstration projects, and also on implementing mechanisms to retain the created knowledge. Transfer of knowledge and the development of local ownership are fundamental for the successful realisation of an island-type hydrogen community.

Case of Cities

Cities are well-placed for successful long term integration of hydrogen energy. Development of the H2FC sector in a city will be driven largely by expected growth in energy demand, and the environmental implications of such growth. Smart targeting of end-use sectors will therefore be critical in the early stages, for generating useful experience and confidence that H2FC can have a meaningful contribution to meeting a city’s energy needs. The transport sector, namely in the area of public/private passenger vehicles, appears to present the highest opportunity for successful H2FC integration in cities in the medium term.

Case of Regions

The key for region-type hydrogen communities lies in their ability to successfully integrate the technology in a relatively large area, characterised by varying levels of urbanisation and energy intensity. Regions that already have invested and developed an innovative energy sector generally have the highest chances for success.

Regions potentially also have an important role to play in the adoption of H2FC in city- and island- type communities, particularly when these communities can become interconnected. Through central coordination of the range of city-level and/or island-level initiatives under their jurisdiction, the regional dimension can result in and exchange of experiences and expertise, and the realisation of economies of scale that may not otherwise be possible for disaggregated initiatives.

References

• Intelligent Energy Europe, Sustainable Energy Communities - 8 innovative projects for an energy intelligent Europe, issued by the European Commission's Intelligent Energy Executive Agency (IEEA). Available at: [3]

Notes

1. ↑ Sustainable Energy Communities are local communities in which politicians, planners, project developers, market actors and citizens actively cooperate to develop and demonstrate high degrees of decentralized energy supply, integrated with renewable energy sources, with a conscientious application of energy efficient measures
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} (1) Private/public passenger transport (e.g. hydrogen and fuel cell buses, cars)
   (2) Private fleets (e.g. delivery van fleets, vehicles within an airport)
   (3) Niche applications (e.g. wheelchairs, scooters, forklifts)
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} (1) Baseload power and combined heat and power (CHP) applications for industrial processes or sale to a third party (e.g. the grid)
   (2) Baseload power and combined heat and power (CHP) applications for residential and services sectors (e.g. homes, offices, hospitals)
4. ↑ Both stationary and transport applications are deployed concurrently within the given site
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Potential hydrogen communities refer to sites that are early adopters of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, having the potential to lead to a coordinated, larger scale adoption of such technologies within a coherent end-user grouping.
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} A hydrogen community is a geographic community (e.g. city, region) whose circumstances make it suitable to take a leading role in hydrogen and related technology.
7. ↑ The overall climate or receptiveness in the community for disruptive energy technologies, bearing in mind the influence that community type (region, city, or island/remote area) can have.
8. ↑ The suitability of a H2FC adoption for a specific end-use sector (Please refer: Types of H2FC Applications and End-user Sectors) in the context of responding to the goals or drivers of the community that are sought to be met through H2FC adoption.