[기획] The government is urgently needed to build an ecosystem such as hydrogen infrastructure rather than ‘2050 carbon neutral’

Today Korea = Reporter Lee Jung-min | The world is on the verge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This is because the transition to an eco-friendly policy is no longer limited to morality or ethics, but is an inevitable measure for securing competitiveness and survival of the country.

In order to secure the competitiveness of the future industry, the government’s policy support, investment in funds, and establishment of a structural framework are priorities. In line with this trend, the Korean government also announced the ‘2050 Carbon Neutral Promotion Strategy’ to reduce net carbon emissions to zero by 2050.

The government has paid attention to hydrogen as the energy source of the future, with high density and high efficiency without emitting any pollutants from renewable energy. Accordingly, it plans to build an infrastructure for the diffusion of the hydrogen economy and to activate the market using hydrogen fuel as an energy source.

The Ministry of Science and Technology and Information and Communication has decided to invest a total of 151.1 billion won for next year’s climate and environment R&D budget, including research on hydrogen energy production and storage technology. By 2034, it plans to foster 1,000 hydrogen specialized companies and 100 energy innovative companies with sales of 100 billion won or more. The scale of R&D support for hydrogen materials, parts and equipment will increase from 20 billion won in 2022 to 200 billion won in 2030.

However, the government’s mid- to long-term roadmap and large-scale budgeting are also pointed out. In the industry as a whole, related technologies such as hydrogen electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cells are world-class, but it is difficult to expand basic infrastructure.

The value chain of the hydrogen economy consists of hydrogen production, storage and transportation. The current government’s investment in the hydrogen industry is too focused on the field of application. This represents the fact that hydrogen charging stations, such as the’blood vessels’ of the hydrogen electric vehicle ecosystem, are still lacking compared to the penetration rate.

According to a recent industry, the government built 51 new charging stations this year, and the total number of domestic hydrogen charging stations was 58. It was less than half of the government’s goal of building 100 units and supplying 167 sites in total.

According to the National Federation of Entrepreneurs, even compared to rival countries such as Japan, Korea’s infrastructure has not been able to keep up with the pace of hydrogen vehicle supply. As of the end of last year, 112 hydrogen charging stations in Japan and 81 hydrogen charging stations in Germany are in operation.

Hyeon-jong Joo, head of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said, “More than 10,000 hydrogen electric vehicles have been supplied, but the supply of hydrogen charging stations is insufficient and the people are experiencing inconvenience. We will build hydrogen charging stations on highways nationwide at a high speed so that we can contribute,” he said.

The reason for this slow construction of hydrogen charging stations is that local residents’ anxiety about hydrogen and residents’ complaints have delayed construction permits and high-pressure gas production permits, which are hindering implementation.

Accordingly, the government first decided to temporarily transfer the permission and permission to build hydrogen charging stations from the basic local government to the central government. In addition, with the Korea Gas Safety Corporation as the vanguard, it is planning to build a hydrogen product testing laboratory, which is an essential infrastructure for securing the safety of hydrogen products, and an experience training center for hydrogen safety education.

The Gas Safety Corporation will build a hydrogen product test laboratory, which is an essential infrastructure for securing the safety of hydrogen products, and develop hydrogen bus parts inspection equipment. With the goal of completion in December 2022, we are also preparing to build a’hydrogen product testing laboratory’ that will perform legal inspections on the safety of various hydrogen products.

In addition, an experiential education center will be built where people can experience the safety of hydrogen energy through hydrogen safety education. The safety experience education center will be built as a two-story building with a site area of ​​1,698m2 and a building area of ​​2478m2.

An official of the Gas Safety Corporation said, “The establishment of a test center and the development of safety evaluation equipment for hydrogen buses have allowed us to accelerate the securing of the safety of hydrogen products.” I look forward to it.”

In addition, it announced’New Normal Gas Safety Innovation’ with the main idea of ​​leading hydrogen safety. It is planned to be carried out by 2023, and the main goal is to lay the foundation for 100% hydrogen safety.

The contents included △Complete safety management standards for hydrogen fuel use facilities and hydrogen products △Complete safety management standards for the entire cycle of liquefied hydrogen △Free rental of inspection equipment for hydrogen car charging stations △Expand the certified items for hydrogen car parts as major tasks.

An official from the Korea Gas Corporation said, “It was unreasonable to build a hydrogen charging station first without data on the economic feasibility of hydrogen vehicles.” In the first half of the year, infrastructure construction is expected to accelerate further.”
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