ABSTRACT
Russia is signaling its interest in joining the global hydrogen race and envisions itself as a future hydrogen supplier for Europe and the Asia-Pacific. This chapter analyzes the strategic hydrogen opportunities in Russia in the context of global events and low-carbon developments. The main message is that Russian hydrogen development is likely to be determined more by a technological strategic orientation than by domestic market demand. The failure to develop a domestic market and lack of matching demand will become serious obstacles to achieving Russia’s ambitious technology development goals. Without significant domestic hydrogen demand, Russian hydrogen technologies will miss commercialization opportunities and a suitable scale-up. A significant increase in domestic low-carbon hydrogen demand can only occur by adopting more ambitious national decarbonization policies, which seem unlikely in the foreseeable future. This chapter points out that stimulating domestic hydrogen demand can also be achieved by tightening transport emission standards, setting targets for the public transport sector, phasing in hydrogen content in gas distribution networks, and implementing a variety of tax incentives and subsidies.
