Environment & Energy

02 September 2024

Developing a global ecosystem to support hydrogen-powered flight
Preparations on the ground to bring ZEROe to the skies

Airbus aims for hydrogen-powered aircraft to enter into service by 2035. While the engineering progress necessary to make this a reality is well underway, there is a second and equally pivotal half of development that must advance in tandem: the creation of a global hydrogen ecosystem.

The argument for hydrogen

Hydrogen is one of the most promising energy sources we have to decarbonise industrial processes. It produces little to no carbon dioxide emissions when used, and when made from renewable energy – known as green hydrogen – its carbon footprint is practically zero.

The cost of green hydrogen is expected to significantly decline as large-scale production accelerates to meet the growing decarbonisation needs of many different industries, applications and usages worldwide. Independent forecasts from the International Energy Agency (IEA), International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and McKinsey predict that cross-industry scale-up will significantly reduce costs.

Indeed, renewable hydrogen will likely be a key factor in decarbonising many industries in the coming decades. But it has a particularly important role to play in helping the aviation industry reach its goal of achieving net-zero CO₂ emissions by 2050. Hydrogen has a specific energy-per-unit mass that is three times higher than traditional jet fuel, making it a much more effective decarbonised energy source than batteries, for example.

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