-: Olivia, what fascinates you about hydrogen?
-: Hydrogen I see is a very important part of the energy mix,
particularly in the future where we want to move
to a fully renewable system.
And we have to find a solution for when it's not windy
and when it's not sunny.
I'm fascinated in hydrogen because it's one of those
solutions that will fix the gap when those aren't available.
The intermittency problem, if you like.
-: What motivates your organization to be a front runner?
-: EnBW is very committed to a new energy future
of removing fossil fuels from the mix,
of protecting the climate at the end of the day,
and protecting the planet.
To solve the intermittency issue,
we need to investigate hydrogen and work out
how we can use that
in maintaining the energy system for our users.
-: What challenges,
because I guess it's not without challenges,
do you think we're facing now
in the up-nascent hydrogen market?
-: I'm not sure we have long enough to talk about
all of the challenges.
There are many challenges,
but as there always are with any new industry,
any new product,
and in this case, any new entire value chain,
frankly speaking.
That said, there's challenges and there's opportunities.
So I think the big opportunities I would focus on
is the fact that none of this is
really brand new technology.
A lot of it is using existing technology,
but in either a different way to how it's already been used,
and I'm thinking here of electrolysis, of gas pipelines,
of uses of hydrogen,
so refineries, fertilizer plants, et cetera.
All of those exist today,
but just need to be tweaked somehow
to work with the new system, if you like.
And that's not going to happen overnight.
So that's a challenge.
The biggest challenge is clearly the economics.
-: Yeah.
-: But if you break that down,
it's getting all of the stakeholders in the value chain
aligned, on board, cooperating well.
So we have the EUETS, for example, which is already...
we wouldn't be sitting down having this conversation,
if there wasn't a carbon price.
-: What's your view and the outlook
for the nascent hydrogen industry?
-: So I think clarity on the regulations
is a critical next step.
And I think at that point, industry is poised
and industry all the way along the value chain.
So from the end user industry,
to the midstream infrastructure industry,
to the upstream production industry,
everyone is poised to make this transition,
to make it happen.
The framework needs to be clear that we're operating within.
-: What is your final takeaway?
-: I think we need to manage the hype a little bit,
that it's not the sole solution.
It is going to be one of the solutions,
but clearly renewable energy development,
wind development, solar development,
hydropower where it's available, is also critical.
And other forms of storage, energy storage.
So yes, I think hydrogen is a very important part.
It's not the only part,
but we all have an important part to play
in making the whole thing carbon neutral.