UK research firm Wood Mackenzie reports that Northeast Asia and Europe are expected to become the main hydrogen importers, accounting for 55% of seaborne hydrogen trade, whereas Australia, the Middle East and, possibly, Russia and the U.S. have the greatest export potential. Plug Power and Lhyfe closed a deal to build green hydrogen generation plants throughout Europe.

Sergio Matalucci reports for pv magazine from the Key Energy event in Rimini on how the Italian solar market is currently dealing with the module price hike and the supply change disruption. According to the president of Italian association Italia Solare, difficulties to source modules in the market have intensified over the last four months.

In a chat with pv magazine at the Key Energy event in Rimini, Roberta Valenziani, of Italian trade body Elettricità Futura, explained the factors preventing Italy’s PV market from having a renaissance. She said the country has Europe’s longest delays and highest costs for obtaining permits for large scale solar.

Efforts are being made to come up with a less convoluted approach to planning farm-based solar systems, in the only EU member state which explicitly apportioned funds for agrivoltaics in its post-Covid spending plans.

Elsewhere, Snam and Toyota are pushing for more hydrogen-based mobility in Italy, and Woodside Petroleum wants to establish an export-oriented hydrogen and ammonia production facility in Australia.

New investments and partnerships announced this week see hydrogen projects developing across Europe, India, Asia and more. The current climate of high prices for natural gas has led one company to exclaim that green hydrogen is now competitive with its fossil fuel produced ‘grey’ counterpart, and research continues into optimizing hydrogen supply chains and smoothing its integration into the energy landscape.

This week sees hydrogen pricing hit new highs, driven by simultaneous jumps in the price of natural gas and electricity. Elsewhere, project plans include green hydrogen production at a UK brewery and Ineos building a 100 MW electrolyzer in Germany, machinery manufacturers Rolls Royce and JCB making plans for hydrogen engines, and new investment agreements signed in Belgium, Sweden and Kazakhstan.

Among other announcements, the U.S. Department of Energy has awarded financing to a consortium of public, private, and academic experts to demonstrate a large-scale liquid hydrogen LH2 tank, a new hydrogen strategy has been unveiled by Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) state government, and Repsol and EDP have teamed up to assess new investment opportunities in renewable hydrogen projects across the Iberian Peninsula.

HyPoint has teamed up with Germany’s BASF to develop high-performance fuel cell membranes for use in its hydrogen fuel cell system while Italian gas transmission system operator Snam has launched a program to support startups along the entire hydrogen value chain, and French President Emmanuel Macron said that small modular reactors and green hydrogen are two of the country’s development objectives to 2030.

Researchers at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) identified a new magnesium-based alloy that could be used for hydrogen storage. Furthermore, Hyundai Mobis announced a $1.1 billion (€0.95 billion) investment in two new fuel cell plants in South Korea, while South Korea’s SK Group formed a joint venture with US hydrogen solutions company Plug Power to develop green hydrogen across several Asian countries.