CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS This section considers Challenges and Solutions in three critical areas: technology, finance, and regulation. Contributors REPURPOSING EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE include Sae Hoon Kim, Senior Vice President of Hyundai’s Fuel Cell Centre; Amir Sharifi, Senior Managing Director, Existing hydrocarbon pipelines could serve as a lever for the Energy Transition Lead at Ardian and Chief Investment Officer energy transition, since their location was initially thought to at Hy24; Nicolas Brahy, Cofounder and General Counsel at perfectly serve the usages. One way to optimize this lever green hydrogen investment fund FiveT Hydrogen, and General would be to facilitate the installation of hydrogen pipes Counsel, Public Affairs and ESG Director at Hy24; and in their wake in order to allow the transition: the existing Renato pipelines would thus gradually transport decarbonized fuels Mazzoncini, Managing Director and Chief Executive at A2A. for another twenty years, while the new ones could serve the Their conclusions are clear: developing hydrogen market. When the market is mature, •The technology is ready with low-risk categories benefiting all pipelines would then transport hydrogen - knowing that from more 30 years of experience. Yet, it requires scale to the conversion of pipelines from hydrocarbons to hydrogen reach economical and profitable levels; is technically and financially feasible. For instance, the •Investors are ready and willing, but need the economics of European Hydrogen Backbone initiative suggests that more hydrogen projects to be sound; than 80% of the Spanish future hydrogen infrastructure will A recent cascade of government initiatives has provided rely on the existing gas infrastructure. There is no doubt that • investors with security in many cases, but much more must be such a story would perfectly serve our common ambition done from a regulatory perspective, and quickly. on climate while reducing the costs of building the new infrastructure the energy transition needs. Yet, making it a reality requires an adapted regulatory framework, which is NEW BUSINESS MODELS still inexistent today. In this section, we learn about the emergence of New Business Models to accommodate for hydrogen from experts Patrick Pouyanné, CEO of TotalEnergies; Marcelino Oreja, Former CEO of Spanish utility Enagás;Luís Silva Santos, CEO of Ascendi; and François Billard anain Director at the French THE MOLECULE OF CHOICE hydrocarbon storage facility Géosel. Throughout, we discover: Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. •The new focus of TotalEnergies on renewable energies. On earth, it is generally found in combination with •The involvement of Spanish utility Enagás in Europe’s other elements and does not occur naturally in industrial ‘Hydrogen Backbone’ of pipelines. quantities. It has to be refined from other compounds: for •The creation of a hydrogen refuelling stations in Ascendi’s example, from water, using electricity to power a process motorway in Portugal. called electrolysis. This is worthwhile because hydrogen •The transformation of Géosel, the French hydrocarbon storage contains more energy by weight than any other fuel, facility. about three times more than natural gas. This energy can be released directly by burning hydrogen, just like we do CONCLUSIONS with natural gas (it can even be mixed with natural gas), Finally, we explore Conclusions, with notes about the observed or converted back into electricity in a fuel cell through a increase in momentum along the whole hydrogen value chain. reverse of the electrolysis process. It can also be used to store and transport energy. For instance: Mathias Burghardt, Head of Infrastructure and Member of the • Hydrogen can be created from surplus renewable Executive Committee at Ardian presents visionary projects that electricity and reconverted when sunshine and wind are supported by the fund around the globe. With its intention aren’t sufficient to meet demand. to become a leader in hydrogen, Ardian created Hy24, a • Hydrogen can be moved efficiently over long distances, new pure-play hydrogen infrastructure fund and a joint-venture whether through pipelines (new or converted) or on alongside FiveT Hydrogen. Pierre-Etienne Franc, Chief Executive vessels (which is what Australia means when it says it is Officer of Hy24 delivers insights into the hydrogen opportunity. ‘exporting sunshine’ to Japan). 11