Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Regan. If I may, I will go first this time. I have a considerable concern about these proposals, and I believe it is reflected in Mr. Regan's opening statement, which is that there is no distinction being made between green hydrogen, which is something that we would pursue probably quite vigorously in Ireland because we have the renewable energy resource, and other forms of hydrogen, particularly those that are created using fossil fuels. If we, as the continent of the EU, go down the road here with hydrogen we must be very careful that we do not save the fossil fuel industry by giving it a route via generating hydrogen using processes other than electrolysis of renewable electricity. This is a serious concern I have about these.

My other concern is about how we use hydrogen and how we will use hydrogen. It seems to me that these proposals suggest that hydrogen would be mixed with natural gas to lower its carbon intensity. That is just about the worst use of hydrogen we can have. That is locking in gas use for a long time, for decades to come. If we go down the road of saying that this is how we use hydrogen, it is a very inefficient use by the time the renewable electricity has been converted to hydrogen. One is injecting it into the grid for burning a boiler in somebody's home, which may only be 80% or 90% efficient. There are very significant losses there. We should directly electrify as much of our economy as possible, but where we are using hydrogen it should be where we have to use it. If we are burning hydrogen in gas boilers and transporting hydrogen via the natural gas network, there are colossal losses in that. It is not the best use of energy that we are going to create in the development of a scaled up renewable energy sector. There are different ways to use it. I have concerns that some of these directives are sending us down a path that is not the best use of the resources we have. Perhaps Mr. Regan would care to comment.