Flexible hydrogen production implementation in the French power system: Expected impacts at the French and European levels

The present study examines how adding the flexible demand of electrolyzers in France would impact the European power system while keeping hydrogen production close to economic competitiveness. Results show that only proactive scenarios with very high penetration rates of decarbonized energy in Europe enable the production of significant amounts of competitive low-carbon hydrogen (€3-5/kgH2). In this context, creating demand to power the electrolyzers mitigates almost all renewable energy curtailment in France, showing that hydrogen production can indeed help to integrate fluctuating renewable energies into the power system.