Azoty chemicals wants 42 pct target for share of hydrogen and ammonia to be suspended

The RED II directive includes new assumptions for the National Indicative Target, a change in the definition of biomass, biohydrogen and other biofuels and the implementation of requirements. By 2030, the European Union is to achieve a minimum 42.5 percent share of green generation sources in final energy consumption.

According to Pawel Bielski, the amendment to the RED II directive, which introduced two targets for increasing the share of renewable energy sources in industry, is behind the current problems of the fertiliser industry.

"The first target in the RED II directive talked about increasing the use of RES in industry by 1.6 percent. This target is indicative, it indicates a certain direction the industry should follow. It would be of no consequence if it were not implemented," deputy CEO Bielski said during a debate on hydrogen in the economy at the European Economic Congress in Katowice.

"In parallel, a second target of 42 percent use of hydrogen and ammonia in 2030 appeared in the same document. This target is very ambitious. So ambitious that already at the stage of its creation, the European fertiliser industry drew attention to the unrealistic possibilities of meeting it," he pointed out.

Azoty's deputy CEO stressed that this target is "unrealistic" and, on behalf of the group and other fertiliser producers, called for it to be suspended.

"Today, we see that this is unrealistic, and we advocate the complete suspension of this condition as being impossible to implement and as being very expensive," Bielski said.

"Even if we were able to meet this target to some extent, it would drive up the output costs of fertilisers heavily, and we see that our customers are not willing to pay more for the fact that we will be using green fertilisers, i.e. those produced on hydrogen," he added.

Pawel Bielski pointed out that it is not only Poland that is against the goal set in the RED II directive.

"There are more voices against (...). For the sake of the Polish industry, we should plan a different timing. We, as the entire fertiliser industry, will decarbonise through other pathways regardless," he said.

The deputy CEO added that the fertiliser industry in Poland is not running away from decarbonisation.

"We see the possibility of decarbonisation in many different ways, such as the direct use of RES, but we assess the transition through hydrogen as very difficult to achieve in Poland and in our part of Europe," Bielski said.

"In Poland, we have a demand for hydrogen at the level of 200,000 tonnes. At the end of 2023, the production of green hydrogen in the entire European Union was 25,000 tonnes, or 1/8 of the total demand in Poland alone," he added.

According to the REPowerEU plan, renewable hydrogen production in the EU is expected to reach 10 million tonnes by 2030, equivalent to 14 percent of total EU electricity consumption.

pr/ ao/