Governance challenges for hydrogen chains in ports
The report 'Governance Issues Affecting Hydrogen Production, Storage, and Transport' was prepared within the project North Sea Hydrogen Valley Ports by Raffaele Petrone and Abdelilah Hammou, with Jayang Gu as co-author University of Caen NormandyThe report was developed as part of the ambition to create a maritime hydrogen valley between North Sea ports.
About the report
The report demonstrates why effective policy is essential for accelerating the hydrogen economy. Despite growing attention to green hydrogen, private investment remains limited by uncertainty surrounding costs, long-term policies, and infrastructure availability. The report notes that European policy frameworks are still fragmented and that clear decision-making, standards, and long-term certainty are needed to scale up from pilot projects to large-scale deployment, with ports as potential hydrogen hubs.
'Governance Issues Affecting Hydrogen Production, Storage, and Transport' covers, among other things:
- Which governance gaps are hindering the hydrogen market, such as the lack of harmonised technical standards, limited infrastructure (pipelines, storage, hydrogen filling stations) and insufficiently predictable policies for investors.
- Specific barriers for ports as hydrogen hubs, such as high investment costs, skills shortages, lengthy permitting processes, and ambiguities surrounding responsibilities in risk and incident management.
- Guidelines to support scaling up, such as harmonizing standards, establishing clear decision-making structures, and increasing policy certainty.
The report links general governance developments to port practices and notes that port ecosystems differ across countries/regions (including different port administration models), necessitating a generic approach that can be adapted to each case.
Disclaimer
This project received funding from Interreg North Sea. This page reflects the author's views only, and Interreg North Sea is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.
