What goes on in Poland on the 24th of February.
The government plans three hydrogen valleys
The Ministry of Climate and Environment is planning to develop hydrogen valleys that could be located in Central Pomerania, Upper Silesia, and the Podkarpacie region.
Poland is the third largest producer of hydrogen in the EU and the fifth in the world. The gas is produced from fossil fuels by Azoty, PKN Orlen, PGNiG and Polish coking plants. At the POWERPOL conference, Deputy Minister of Climate and Environment Ireneusz Zyska reminded that on February 15 the public consultations on the hydrogen strategy had ended.
„We are analyzing them and this year we want to start working on the hydrogen law. The companies introduced hydrogen in their strategies, including coal-based generation,” Zyska stated. He added that the government strategy proposed that hydrogen will be used in three areas of the economy: energy and heating, transport and industrial technologies.
Zyska also mentioned offshore wind energy. „We are preparing another regulation regarding the maximum price. We are in the process of public consultations. There are five projects at an advanced stage of approximately 5.9 GW. We want them to be implemented by 2027 and 2028. Then there will be projects that will win auctions in 2025 and 2027. The Polish hydrogen strategy, which is related to the Offshore Act and PEP2040, assumes that in 2030 we will be able to use electricity from offshore wind farms at the level of 2 GW to generate green hydrogen in the process of electrolysis. The production will be concentrated in hydrogen valleys, where the competence value chain will be developed to focus on production or storage, to allow for the creation of an ecosystem that facilitates innovations,” the Deputy Minister explained. The so-called hydrogen valleys could be established in Central Pomerania, where there will be an offshore power output, as well as in Upper Silesia and the Podkarpacie region, where the fuel cell factory in Boguchwała is located.
