Following the increasing role of hydrogen energy outlined in Russia's Energy Strategy for 2020-35, the Government of the Russian Federation has adopted a Roadmap for Development of Hydrogen Energy for 2020-24 in October 2020.
A timetable in English has been published by the consultancy Morgan Lewis.
An article by Jahn et al. published by the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) and by Germanwatch (“Hydrogen: A Future Cornerstone of EU-Russia Energy Relations?”) summarises the Roadmap. The authors start from the assumption that Russia has the potential to be a major player in the production and export of hydrogen and that green hydrogen could be produced in Russia in large quantities, as well, given the country’s enormous endowment of wind and solar resources.
“The country’s energy strategy continues to assign only a minor role to renewables. Hydrogen, by contrast, is now top of the Russian government’s agenda, with plans to export two million tons of hydrogen by 2035.
However, Russia’s hydrogen roadmap primarily aims to develop production capacities in ‘yellow hydrogen’ (which is produced from nuclear power) and ‘turquoise hydrogen’ (which is produced from natural gas). Turquoise hydrogen is manufactured using molten metal pyrolysis, which separates natural gas into hydrogen and black carbon. This process does not release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere but is still at an early stage of development. In addition, in the course of extracting and transporting natural gas, significant methane emissions occur. The option of green hydrogen is given only a cursory mention in the Russian roadmap.”