Through the activities of the DanuP-2-Gas project, EIHP wants to raise the wider community's awareness about power-to-gas technology and hydrogen as new actors in diversification, decarbonization, and the increasingly necessary energy independence power-to-gas tehnologiji i vodiku kao novim akterima u diverzifikaciji, dekarbonizaciji i sve potrebnijoj energetskoj neovisnosti
On November 24, 2022, the final workshop of the DanuP-2-Gas project was held in the hall of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce.
In the very introduction, project manager Ivona Hulenić gave an insight into the project results: "Through numerous conversations, meetings with representatives of industry, public administration bodies, and the scientific community, we created a document in which we identified regulatory, technological, and socio-technical obstacles that slow down the integration of these technologies, but also offered recommendations and activities that we believe would help in eliminating them. The lack of a more detailed and targeted legislative framework and a significant administrative burden on the part of potential investors are recognized as leading challenges. The hydrogen valley of the Northern Adriatic represents excellent potential for the development and positioning of Croatian representatives in the hydrogen and power-to-gas chains".
At the workshop, in addition to the presentation of the project results, Vjekoslav Jukić, head of the Department for Energy Policy and Planning in the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, gave a presentation on the Croatian legislative framework related to hydrogen and potential financial tools and reported on the progress of the Northern Adriatic Hydrogen Valley.
Dinko Đurđević presented the role of hydrogen from a European perspective in front of the Hydrogen Europe organization, concluding: "One of the recommendations refers to more intensive cooperation between Croatian stakeholders in the hydrogen sector. Associations like this have a significant influence at the EU level in terms of representing the interests of the industry and faster implementation of advanced technologies. It is crucial that Croatian stakeholders also get involved in its work."
The legislative framework and the lack of networking are the biggest obstacles
An exciting panel discussion was also held on the topic "Potentials of the Republic of Croatia in hydrogen value chains," in which participated Danica Maljković (Indeloop), Tonći Panza (Adria Wind Power), Krešimir Ižaković, (Dilj), Dinko Đurđević, (Hydrogen Europe) and Ante Sjauš (Zadar County).
Na panelu su predstavljena tri projektna koncepta. Maljković je predstavila projektni koncept prijavljen unutar Doline vodika, a odnosi se na razvoj tehnologije „waste-to-energy“. Ižaković je ispred tvrtke Dilj, članice Nexe Grupe, predstavio projektnu ideju supstitucije prirodnog plina vodikom u proizvodnom procesu, a Panza je predstavio koncept energetskog parka gdje bi se, uz instaliranu vjetroelektranu i solarnu elektranu koja je u fazi realizacije, proizvodio vodik. Sjauš, pročelnik za gospodarstvo i turizam Zadarske županije, istaknuo je napore i lidersku poziciju županije u količini integriranih postrojenja za proizvodnju električne energije iz obnovljivih izvora. Istaknuta je želja da kroz ovakve vrste događanja prepoznaju gdje i kako mogu dalje pružiti potporu investitorima. „Županija je otvorena za nove ideje i vodik je svakako smjer koji smo uvrstili u svoje strateške planove“, naglasio je Sjauš. Đurđević je pohvalio projekte koji se razvijaju u Hrvatskoj, a uključuju vodik, no također istaknuo koje bi trebalo uložiti još napora da se poboljša i olakša razvitak projekata poduprijevši to primjerima iz Europe.
All participants agreed that the legislative framework is the biggest obstacle, but also the lack of networking, that is, the cooperation of industry representatives and government bodies to bring the necessary changes to the legal framework as quickly as possible through joint efforts.
Tools for easier investment planning
As part of the DanuP-2-Gas project, tools have been developed for different stakeholders in the Danube region to stimulate interest in possible investment projects in power-to-gas hubs and reveal potential obstacles in their implementation. In the second part of the workshop, the focus was on developing the tool and applying it in practice.
The transnational atlas of renewable energy is an online tool in the form of a web geo-information system (GIS), with which it is possible to display various existing infrastructure elements for planning P2G hubs in Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria.
An offline optimization tool provides an economically optimal unified proposal for structuring the hub's conversion and storage processes and their year-round operation for the selected point and infrastructure elements in the global atlas. Subsequent manual correction of all data downloaded from the atlas is possible, and it is also possible to enter data completely manually without using the atlas. Along with the optimal result, an accompanying economic and technical analysis is provided: the time and amount of consumption of input resources, the products of P2G hubs that are handed over to the consumption chains, and the associated emissions.
The optimization tool facilitates planning investments in power-to-gas hubs because it provides an economically optimal unified proposal for structuring the process of conversion and storage in the hub and for their year-round mode of operation.
You can download the tools for free on platform Danube Energy.
The Laboratory for Renewable Energy Source Systems (LARES) researchers at FER Filip Rukavina, dr. sc. Marijo Šundrica, Antonio Karneluti and the head of the DanuP-2-Gas project at FER and the head of LARES, Mario Vašak.
The HGK also recognized the need for connecting and strengthening the industry in this direction and, in addition to participating in the organization of this workshop, at the beginning of the year the Hydrogen Group was founded within the HGK led by Danica Maljković from the company Indeloop. The project Mapping the potential of the Croatian economy for the development of hydrogen technologies was also launched.
You can download the presentations from the workshop below:
