Nigeria Docile As Countries Start New Era Of Hydrogen Energy
Many people mocked defunct Bank PHB when a TV commercial in 2015 suggests that one-day cars will run on water, that era when cars are running on water is here and it doesn’t look great for Nigeria that is still lagging in the new order.
The ambitious stories of countries venturing into the new era of hydrogen energy in a world talking tough about radical energy shifts is a message Nigeria is yet to come to terms with.
2020 was a year most countries across the globe took bold steps in hydrogen energy initiative either as a tool to meet ambitious decarbonization goals or an opportunity aimed at export, but Nigeria remained passive despite having a variety of resources to produce hydrogen.
“The market for green hydrogen is expected to grow exponentially in the coming decade,” Ademuyiwa Adegun, an Abuja-based gas commercial advisor, said. “The world will not wait for Nigeria.”
The future of hydrogen energy became clearer at the end of 2020 as some experts believe that the hydrogen fuel economy has finally reached a tipping point, and hydrogen could soon develop into a globally-traded energy source, just like oil and gas.
The revelation comes as dozens of countries have started committing billions of dollars, especially to green hydrogen, in a bid to combat climate change, a development Nigeria still remains relatively silent.
London–based global information provider, IHS Markit, has reported that a growing number of countries and oil companies have been proactively investing in hydrogen technologies, most especially for green hydrogen which is expected to grow exponentially in the coming decade.
For instance, hydrocarbon exporting countries in the Middle East which are well endowed with high solar insolation; coal-rich countries like Australia, gas-rich countries like Russia as well as highly industrialized energy-importing countries in Asia and Europe are all showing a keen interest in hydrogen.
“2021 will be the first year of the golden age of hydrogen,” Nobuo Tanaka, former executive director of the International Energy Agency said.
A good case in point is Germany, who apart from recently committing to invest about $10.2 billion in hydrogen technology over the next two decades, have also published a national hydrogen strategy consisting of 38 steps on the production of hydrogen from renewable energy resources.
Seeking to become carbon-neutral by 2050, Germany aims to have 5GW of hydrogen production by 2030 with another 5GW a decade later.
The example of Germany was followed not only by the European Union, which presented its own hydrogen strategy in July, but also by Russia, which approved the Hydrogen Energy Development Plan.
The European Union announced over the summer its intent to expand green hydrogen on a large scale as part of its $550 billion clean energy plan. In July 2020, the Commission announced a hydrogen strategy that calls for a $430 billion investment in green hydrogen by 2030.
Also, Japan has emerged as a hotspot for the zero-emission hydrogen economy of the future, a vision shared both by the government and its world-leading auto industry Toyota, who are both making a huge bet that hydrogen, not batteries or fossil fuel will provide power for the emission-free cars of the future.
Along with electric vehicles, China sees green hydrogen as a potential way of decarbonizing transportation. The country’s targets include 5,000 fuel-cell vehicles by 2020 and 1 million by 2030.
Other countries with huge hydrogen commitments include Australia, China, France, Norway, South Korea, and the UK, among others.
A report published by Norway’s consultancy DNV GL said half of senior oil and gas professionals expect hydrogen to be a significant part of the energy mix by 2030, with a fifth of surveyed oil and gas companies already active in the hydrogen market.
The above development not only put Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, in a precarious situation but also exposes how the world is gradually turning away from crude oil to gas to drive their economies.
“Nigeria needs a national strategy either through production of hydrogen from fossil fuels as a short-term measure or developing a hydrogen infrastructure or ultimately clean production of hydrogen from renewable energy sources,” Adegun said.
In 2021, countries are already making green hydrogen a priority for their energy needs, with lots of cost attributed to the country’s natural resources, such as Chile, which is investing in hydrogen infrastructure due to its optimal wind resources.
Wind energy development in Nigerian is still at an infant stage and the few wind energy technologies found in the country are mainly windmills which are used for irrigation water pumping in some rural communities in the northern regions.
Some studies have opined that if 1percent of Nigeria landmass is used for solar PV electricity generation, it is capable of producing around 207,000 GWh of electricity per year which is more than enough to satisfy Nigeria’s energy requirements. Despite the high potential, there is no grid-connected solar plant in the country currently.
One way or another, most experts say Nigeria must face up to a future without oil which the country can choose through voluntarily transition from a petro-state to a more balanced and productive economy, or through dragging, kicking and screaming, into the post-oil age.
Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer, but its oil wealth has been a curse. Rife corruption and environmental damage have plagued Nigeria’s oil history for decade.
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