Chapter 7: Economic Geography
Texte intégral
1It is important to realise that to some degree the support from economic sectors depends on their geographic background. Which economic sectors support hydrogen seems linked to where this question is asked. This is valid both for the national level, as well as for the regional or cluster level. Governmental hydrogen strategies and support for hydrogen projects at various levels of government are a major factor in this, in the context of more and stricter climate regulations and increasing public pressure for change.
7.1 National Level
2The number of entities from a country that are members of hydrogen associations can be crudely predicted by economic size and development, using the following formula: N entities in hydrogen associations = 0.09 x GDP (in bn USD) - 11, R2 = 0.68, α =.05, p = 0.000. This is based on IMF (2019) nominal GDP data (current USD) for 2018, and the number of registrations in hydrogen associations of companies from 39 European countries.1 Notwithstanding the very crude nature of such calculations and the many confounding variables, they indicate which countries are expected to have sizeable hydrogen interests.
3More importantly, this gives a rough indication of the countries that are relatively under- and overrepresented. The biggest negative outlier of the larger European economies is Russia, with no registered entities, emblematic of the lack in representation of Eastern Europe at large. Relatively well-performing countries in Central and Eastern Europe include Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and the Baltic states. These are also countries where natural gas plays a significant role in the energy system. This also makes Italy, where natural gas plays a key role too, an outlier. It constitutes less than 1.5% of the registered entities, despite its large economy. Germany is clearly overrepresented, even considering its large economy. It is responsible for almost 40% of all registrations, approaching double the number of registrations of France, Italy, and the United Kingdom combined. France and the United Kingdom also underperform, especially relative to Germany and Spain. High performing regions appear to be the Iberian Peninsula, Benelux, and the Nordics minus Finland. Taken together, this seems to confirm the IEA’s focus on a North Sea Region as a potential future hydrogen hub.
4 The link with GDP also means that most association members are from the bigger economies, with Italy and Russia as negative outliers. Approximately 70% come from Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Spain. Germany (N=605, 36.23% of total) is especially well-represented, partially explained by the high number of hydrogen associations. A caveat is that its largest association, under the EnergieAgentur NRW, also has companies active in electromobility beyond fuel cells and hydrogen in its portfolio. However, even when this association is excluded, Germany remains a clear overperformer. The cluster overlap is large in Germany, and it has a broad array of SMEs that partake in them.
5 The composition of countries’ lists of hydrogen association members is also very different. Germany and Spain both have some influential companies that are present in multiple hydrogen associations, but most of the registrations in these countries are SMEs. Siemens and the large carmakers are examples of these influential companies for Germany; Abengoa and Enagás for Spain. This is different for the UK and especially France. There are several companies headquartered in both countries that are very significant components of each country’s presence in hydrogen coalitions across Europe. These companies can have very different sizes. Examples of influential companies include chemical industry giants Air Liquide (member of 18 associations), and the now UK-headquartered Linde (16). Such key roles are also reserved for Engie (6) and its subsidiaries Storengy (4) and GRTgaz (3), as well as Électricité de France (EDF; 2) and its subsidiary Areva, which in turn owns Areva H2Gen (8) and Areva Stockage d’Énergie (2). They are complemented by some smaller companies that are very active in hydrogen coalitions, such as UK-based ITM Power (8), and France-based McPhy (8). Both France and the UK have considerably less diversity than Germany and Spain.
7.2 Hydrogen Clusters
6 The active role of regional and local governments in hydrogen associations also helps identify clusters of interest. This is notably the case for North Rhine-Westphalia and the East German states that support HYPOS, but large (N>50) associations are also present in Aragon, Hesse, Flanders2, Scotland, and smaller associations (N<50) in Bayern, Cologne, Hamburg, London, the Ruhr Area, Wales, and Southern Germany. The density in Germany is particularly high. One such example is Cologne, which has a local association, (Hydrogen Cologne), a regional association (H2 Netzwerk Ruhr), and a state-level association (EnergieAgentur NRW). This is still aside from DWV and Hydrogen Europe at the national and European level respectively.
7 As such, the activity and density of hydrogen networks quite closely corresponds to the IEA’s (2019c, pp. 179–180) vision of the North Sea Region as a high-potential region for the hydrogen economy to take off. The combined membership of associations from Cologne, Flanders, Hamburg, London, North Rhine-Westphalia, the Ruhr Area, and Scotland, with national associations from Denmark, Iceland, the Netherlands,3 Norway, and the UK covers 45% of all European-based hydrogen association entities. Adding France, Germany and Sweden, countries that are only partially connected to the North Sea Region, increases the coverage to 58%. This also fits with the existing literature (Madsen & Andersen, 2010) on Aragon, North Rhine-Westphalia, and southern Scandinavia as emerging lead regions, although much less so for various northern Italian regions.
Notes de bas de page
1 All European countries by the UN M49 standard, minus Andorra, Holy See, Liechtenstein, Monaco, and the Faroe Islands.
2 The only Belgian hydrogen association is WaterstofNet, which covers Flanders and the South of the Netherlands together.
3 The Netherlands has several associations: H2 Platform, the Nederlandse Waterstof en Brandstofcel Associatie (NWBA), and the Waterstof Coalitie. The binational WaterstofNet is considered as the Flemish association, see above.
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