Engie urges caution on pace of hydrogen deployment

Applications in hard-to-abate industries will take longer than previously expected to develop, warns CEO

French energy company Engie has downplayed expectations for the rapid deployment of low-carbon hydrogen in hard-to-abate sectors such as steel production because of the “massive” investment needed to overhaul industrial processes to enable the switch. Switching to low-carbon hydrogen in existing applications, such as fertiliser production, can deliver decarbonisation “fairly easily” as long as the economics work, but new applications will take much longer to develop, Engie CEO Catherine MacGregor told the International Energy Week conference in London. “We had this big buzz around hydrogen when we thought that everything was happening at the same time,” she said.  “Obviously things are takin