The European Clean Hydrogen Alliance has published its Roadmap on hydrogen standardisation, which provides a comprehensive overview of standardisation gaps, challenges and needs identified by Alliance members.
Indeed, the identified gaps continue to be a significant barrier to the deployment of hydrogen technologies, applications and investments. Thus, the roadmap covers standardisation needs for the entire hydrogen value chain, from production, distribution, transport and storage to end applications.
In line with the standardisation strategy, the roadmap also includes a set of recommendations aimed at streamlining and accelerating the process of defining European standards. In particular, it will allow the Commission to prepare a standardisation mandate on the identified hydrogen standards for European standardisation organisations.
Beyond the identification of individual standardisation topics, a number of issues were identified. First, the need for a clear regulatory framework to give direction to the detailed standardisation work. Second, the importance of the publication of standardisation requests, which are mandates of the European Commission to prepare specific standards. Third, it is important to engage the industry in topics that “need to be developed” and/or topics for which no standardisation committees exist or are yet active. Fourth, the need for overall coordination of hydrogen standardisation activities focusing on the technical needs of the industry. Finally, increased cooperation between European and international standardisation bodies is needed.
Based on the challenges identified, the working group of the roadmap also issued some key actions and recommendations that should pave the way for new hydrogen standards to accelerate the rollout of large-scale hydrogen solutions. For example, the integration of the identified standardisation topics list into the standard-setting process at the EU level (CEN-CENELEC) and international level (ISO-IEC). Or a broader stakeholder engagement in the standardisation process by sending experts to the relevant standardisation committees.
Or, further coordination of the overall process, including with relevant Horizon Europe Partnerships.
