- Registration date2023-12-20
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The Korean government held the sixth Hydrogen Economy Committee meeting on December 18 at the Lotte Hotel Seoul, chaired by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, to announce major policies for accelerating the transition to a clean hydrogen ecosystem and nurturing the hydrogen industry.
During the meeting, attendees discussed four main policy agendas: clean hydrogen certification system management measures, strategy for nurturing the hydrogen industry’s MPE (materials, parts, equipment) sectors, measures to increase the distribution of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), and measures for managing the national hydrogen priority R&D centers.
During the previous fifth meeting of the Hydrogen Economy Committee meeting in November 2022, the “new Government's hydrogen economy policy directions” were proposed, aiming to create large-scale hydrogen demand, establish clean hydrogen infrastructure and system, and nurture Korea into a hydrogen powerhouse. Based on these directions, the Government designated hydrogen as the national strategic technology in March this year, opened the world’s first hydrogen power bidding market in June, and agreed to push hydrogen cooperation with governments and companies of the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Japan and other countries for fostering the clean hydrogen ecosystem and nurturing the hydrogen industry. The major policy directions announced through the meeting center on the following:
1)Clean hydrogen certification management system: This system aims to support the certification of production and import of hydrogen and provide incentives when the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions falls under a certain level in accordance with the Hydrogen Act. Specifically, the committee meeting set GHG emission of 4kg or less per every 1kg of hydrogen as the standard for certification as clean hydrogen, and also established relevant procedures, certification system and support measures. As a result, it is expected that both the launch of the Clean Hydrogen Production Standard (CHPS), slated for next year, and enforcement of related laws will be able to proceed smoothly; companies will also begin to make clean hydrogen investments in earnest.
2)Hydrogen MPE industry nurturing strategy: 40 core items across 10 major hydrogen industry areas were selected for the development of hydrogen MPE industries, including water electrolysis, liquid hydrogen carrier and hydrogen turbines; support will be given to secure proprietary technology, accelerate commercialization and strengthen the supply chain. These measures are anticipated to achieve 80 percent localization of the top 10 strategic areas’ MPEs by 2030 and nurture 20 top global MPE companies.
3)Measures for expanding distribution of FCEVs: With the goal of distributing 0.3 million units of FCEVs and establishing over 660 hydrogen charging stations by 2030, the plan is to increase the number of different kinds of charging stations, including those for charging liquid hydrogen and “convergence” types; in step with rising hydrogen demand, the Government has developed measures for strengthening the hydrogen supply response system and diversification.
4)National priority hydrogen R&D center management measures: Establish priority R&D centers concentrating on each of the water electrolysis technologies for R&D on basic and proprietary technology for technological localization and for providing performance evaluation support to secure technical credibility.
Prior to the committee meeting, three memorandums of understanding (MOUs) were entered between major domestic and overseas hydrogen companies, including LG Chem, SK E&S, Hyosung Heavy Industries, Bloom Energy, SK ecoplant and MPE firms specializing in liquid hydrogen tanks, electrode materials and bipolar plates for collaboration in technology development and supply chains.
These efforts are anticipated to help strengthen the alkaline water electrolysis system technology, localization of core materials and equipment for liquid hydrogen charging stations and bolstering the supply chain in Korea and overseas.