The Czech government approved the Hydrogen Strategy, prepared by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and based on four pillars: low-carbon hydrogen production, low-carbon hydrogen utilisation, hydrogen transport and storage, hydrogen technologies.
“The goal of the strategy is, among other things, to accelerate the development and subsequent implementation of economically available hydrogen technologies,” said Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Silvana Jirotková. “The Czech Republic must have the ambition to become an important exporter in this area in the future.”
“The question on how to use hydrogen depends mainly on the price, so we must look for ways to minimise the costs and ensure maximum effectiveness by replacing fossil fuels with hydrogen,” added Petr Mervart, plenipotentiary of the Minister of Industry and Trade for Hydrogen Technologies. “Our aim is to start in the Czech Republic a new low-carbon economy which will gradually replace the one that is heavily dependent on fossil fuels and which will gradually shrink.”
The Czech Republic, together with other member states, has committed to achieving climate neutrality by 2050. The hydrogen strategy is one of the important tools to achieve this goal.
Presenting the hydrogen at an international conference, Mr Mervart underlined that due to the geographical location of the Czech Republic, not only renewables have been taken into considerations but also other sources can produce low-carbon hydrogen.
Among the companies already working in this direction, the utility group ČEZ is developing up to 15 projects for the production and use of hydrogen and in six of them, it is already taking concrete steps, especially in the use of hydrogen in public transport. Also, the University of Chemical Technology in Prague has an accredited study program focused on hydrogen technologies and the Ústí nad Labem region is the first Czech region with a developed network of filling stations, three of which will be put in operation in the near future.
