Hydrogen Green Metrics Report WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS - Week 7
Series—Week Seven
In today’s seventh installment of highlights from the SEP report, we analyze the land requirements for renewable energy needed to support hydrogen production via electrolysis.
Hydrogen is an indirect greenhouse gas with a GWP100 of 12. Atmospheric concentration is relatively low and annual hydrogen production-related leaks are a small fraction of total hydrogen sources. Growth in clean hydrogen production as part of the energy transition to decarbonize many hard-to-abate industries necessitates low leak rates.
A study titled “Global land and water limits to electrolytic hydrogen production using wind and solar resources” published in Nature Communications explores this. The researchers found that producing green hydrogen in the U.S. would require less than 5% of eligible land if powered by solar or approximately 25% if powered by wind by 2050. Eligible land includes less than 10% of forests, 10%–70% of agricultural land depending on type, and less than 25% of urban areas.
The SEP report Hydrogen Green Metrics investigates this and other environmental features of hydrogen production, transportation, and use. For more information, the report may be accessed here: https://www.saoradh.com/marketplace-new
—SEP Hydrogen Innovation Report, Chapter 2: Green Metrics, January 2025
About Saoradh Enterprise Partners
Saoradh Enterprise Partners (SEP) is a cleantech venture capital and research firm based in Boulder, Colorado. SEP partners with innovators, entrepreneurs, and corporations to develop cleantech solutions at the magical intersection of science (what’s possible), finance (what’s bankable), industry (what’s needed), and planet (what matters). Learn more at www.saoradh.com.
Media contact:
Jackson Levin, Business Development & Communications, Hydrogen Data Consortium
+1 (303) 448-2115 (office main number)
+1 (414) 405-3743 (cell)