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What Is The Decision Support Tool?
Welcome to the CH2F’s Decision Support Tool (DST). The DST is designed to support stakeholders to evaluate the potential of hydrogen in sustainable community development, decarbonisation, and energy security throughout the North West Europe (NWE) region. The DST achieves this by demonstrating the role of hydrogen produced at onshore wind farms throughout NWE in decarbonising public bus fleets in large cities across the region. It is visualised in an online interactive map of NWE and explained in more below.
What is the Simplified DST?
The simplified DST (SDST) follows a similar principle to the full version, however there are a few distinct differences. The SDST examines the renewable energy landscapes of a number of select countries based in NWE, as opposed to specific European cities. The resource shows data detailing the primary energy sources of the countries examined as well as their current hydrogen production methods.
How Do I Use The SDST?
Clicking on the country you are interested in will open a new tab containing information on the desired location in the form of two graphs. The graphs shown below are for Belgium.
What are the Primary Energy Sources in My Country?
This figure shows the percentage share of total primary energy supply (TPES) by energy source. It can be seen that 71% of the Belgian energy demand are supplied by fossil fuels (coal, natural gas and oil). Renewable energy contributes to nearly 9% of the total energy supply. Renewable includes wind, solar, hydro, biofuels & waste.
How is Hydrogen Produced in My Country?
The pie diagram illustrates the percentage share of total hydrogen capacity by process production. The figure shows the hydrogen has been produced and consumed in Belgium. In fact, most of hydrogen is generated from fossil fuels via steam methane reforming (SMR). The rest of hydrogen is extracted in oil refinery. In the near future, renewables can also be potential energy sources for hydrogen production.
What Next? Explore the DST for Renewables.
In general, the DST informs the energy and hydrogen supplies in Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands and the United Kingdom. It can be seen that hydrogen has been utilised in the NWE region. There are more potentials to supply hydrogen from various renewable sources. These clean energy potentials are shown in the other versions of DST. The user can explore the wind, wind-solar and biomass version of DST in the DST subpages.
How Can this Information Support Energy Communities?
The outlook shows the current energy supply in each country across NWE region. This helps energy communities to evaluate the available energy source for hydrogen production. Additionally, the DST also illustrates the processes that are used to supply hydrogen demand. The detailed potential of renewable hydrogen supply chain is given in the other versions of DST.
How Is the DST Developed?
The DST is developed from the available data at the International Energy Agency [1] and Hydrogen Tools [2]. The DST visualise these data in the form of pie diagram, so that the DST users can easily and quickly evaluate the energy and hydrogen sources in respective country across NWE region.