Electricity has well known limitations, mainly for bulk and long-range transport, industrial processes requiring high temperature heat, and the chemicals industry. To entirely replace fossil fuels we need hydrogen. It has an energy density comparable to hydrocarbons. There’s more: Europe’s electric grid can’t cope with 100% electrification, yet hydrogen would use the existing gas pipe networks. The authors lay out a plan to deliver 50% of Europe’s energy from hydrogen by 2050. Done rapidly at scale, hydrogen would soon be as cheap as gas. It will also make Europe the hydrogen market leader: what technologies Europe (or anywhere!) masters first, it can sell to the rest of the world hungry for clean energy solutions.

Green hydrogen can in principle be shipped around the world to places that are less well endowed with cheap renewable energy sources.

France's EDF has launched a hydrogen production and distribution subsidiary to support decarbonisation of industry and mobility using low-carbon electricity from its nuclear and renewable energy fleet.

China has begun construction of the main structure of the 2.24-GW hydropower station on the Jinsha River, the upper section of the Yangtze River. The project is undertaken by China Huadian Corp., with a total investment of about 33.4 billion yuan (about 5 billion US dollars).

BLOOMBERG - Gazprom PJSC, the Russian company that’s the dominant exporter of natural gas into Europe, is exploring ways to produce emissions-free hydrogen from its fuel and create a 153 billion-euro ($175 billion) a year market by 2050

PLATTS - EDF maintained its annual French nuclear output target of 395 TWh and reported further progress in the regulator-requested Creusot review of its entire nuclear fleet with 34 reactors now cleared and 48 files submitted to the ASN by July 30.

WNN - The Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKEs), published today by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), shows low-carbon sources of electricity accounted for a record 50.1% of power generated in the UK in 2017, which is up from 45.6% the previous year. This figure consists of 21.0% from nuclear, 14.8% wind (onshore and offshore), 3.4% solar and 2.3% hydro amongst low-carbon power sources.