Analysis of Barriers for development of Green Hydrogen in United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Abstract

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have one of the highest annual energy consumption per capita and rank within the top 10 countries with highest CO¬2 emissions. All of the countries have low levels of renewable energy share in the total energy consumption. Among these countries, UAE has been relatively proactive in promoting the use of renewable energy. The UAE’s Energy Strategy 2050 aims at achieving 50% of clean energy share in the total energy consumption by 2050. However, this strategy published by the government does not mention anything about the development of green hydrogen. On the other hand, several articles and reports have highlighted the large potential for the development of green hydrogen in UAE along with other GCC countries. However, these studies do not address the potential barriers that UAE might face in the development of a green hydrogen supply chain. Therefore, this thesis aims to identify the barriers to the development of green hydrogen in UAE and provide suggestions to overcome them based on the interrelationships and priorities explored in this research. The following research questions are asked: “What are the barriers for large-scale development of green hydrogen in UAE?” and “What are the most influential barriers to the development and what interrelationships exist between them?”
In order to identify the barriers to the growth of green hydrogen in UAE, a combination of literature study and expert interviews was implemented. A total of 20 barriers are identified categorised in technical, economic, institutional and social barrier groups. Next, a methodology is chosen which helps us map the interrelationships between the barriers and identify the most important barriers to be tackled first. A combination of two methods is used in tandem to achieve the desired results. A combination of DEMATEL and BWM, two multi-criteria decision methods is used. This methodology is implemented to obtain two vital pieces of information; firstly, DEMATEL provides information on the interrelationships of barriers and identifies the best and worst criteria for implementing BWM. Secondly, the barriers are ranked on their influence on the system through BWM which provides us the order of priority the barriers should be tackled. Another novelty of this research is that the information derived from DEMATEL helps in filtering out the criteria and takes into consideration the cause-and-effect groups while choosing the best and worst criteria for implementing BWM, thus making the process convenient and reliable.
After the application of this methodology to the identified 20 barriers, we are able to highlight the interrelationships that exist between the barriers and the order of priority they should be tackled in for successful development of green hydrogen in UAE. “Lack of legislature for hydrogen”, “Preference towards fossil fuels”, “High initial costs” and “Lack of incentives, tax breaks and subsidies” are found to be most critical barriers that need immediate attention. “High storage, transmission and distribution”, “Lack of privatization in energy sector”, “Lack of awareness in society” and “Safety issues of hydrogen” are other important problems that need to be tackled. Next, recommendations are provided for overcoming these barriers considering the interrelationships established.
Solutions are proposed to solve these barriers in the form of policy requirements, pilot project schemes, addition of courses on the subjects of renewable energy in curriculums and other methods which best tackle the specific barrier in question. For example, to overcome the lack of legislature for hydrogen, suggestions for addressing all the barriers it affects; these would include promoting installation of renewable energy, provision of grants/funds for installation of green hydrogen production facilities, establishing subsidy schemes or incentives and promote adoption of alternative sources of energy and move away from fossil fuels. Preference towards fossil fuels can be tackled by promoting the applications of hydrogen alongside subsidies for using them, phasing out subsidies for use of fossil fuels and implementation of carbon taxes to encourage the use of hydrogen and implementing small scale demonstration of hydrogen technology in applications like public transport. Similarly, solutions are provided for all barriers. Due to the complex interrelated nature of the barriers, some solutions alleviate other barriers automatically.
This study identifies the barriers to green hydrogen development in UAE, provides the order of priority to tackle the barriers and provides recommendations on overcoming the barriers. The outcomes of this study can aid the policymakers in UAE in formulation of a hydrogen strategy. Additionally, the methodology of DEMATEL-BWM used in this research can be implemented to other topics of energy transition. This study also provides a foundation for analysing further analysing the hydrogen economy in UAE. Finally, the limitations of this study are highlighted and recommendations for future research are provided.