(Invited) A Review of the Current Trends in Japan's Policies and Technological Developments Toward the Realization of a Hydrogen Society
Authors: Saka Hidenori 
Published: December 2024

The presentation outlines Japan's challenges in achieving a hydrogen-based society, taking into account current regulations, market data, and RD&D activities. The Japanese government has been actively pushing efforts to create a society based on hydrogen in order to address a number of social agendas, including energy security, climate change, etc. Japanese government completed the "Basic Hydrogen Strategy" in 2017. The original strategy was formulated with the aim of effectively developing hydrogen technology and creating a domestic hydrogen market ahead of the rest of the world. However, the government has decided to update the strategy to not only develop the domestic market but also expand into overseas markets taking into account changes in social conditions in June 2023.

The strategy acts as both an action plan to achieve the goals by 2030 and future visions for carbon neutrality by 2050. The strategy provides integrated policies across ministries ranging from hydrogen production to utilization under the common goals, and it sets a goal for Japan to reduce hydrogen costs to the same level as conventional energy. In addition to the current target of expanding hydrogen consumption to about 3 million tons per year by 2030 and about 20 million tons per year by 2050, the strategy sets a new target of about 12 million tons per year by 2040.

On the hydrogen supply side, as global water electrolysis capacity is expected to reach 134 GW in 2030, the introduction of Japanese products in domestic and overseas upstream markets will contribute to strengthening Japan's presence in global energy supply. The global water electrolysis capacity target of Japan-related companies is set at 15 GW by 2030. On the demand side, hydrogen's role is expected to expand in the future, as it is expected to make various contributions, including the decarbonization of heat use, the development of zero emission power sources, and the production of recycled carbon products such as synthetic fuels and e-methane. In terms of support schemes, the Japanese government plans to support hydrogen production and supply projects and the development of domestic bases as a means to achieve full-scale hydrogen deployment in the future. The government plans to provide CAPEX and OPEX support to suppliers in the form of CfD (Contract for Difference) over 15 years with the government budget for selected hydrogen projects that are expected to be sustainable in the long term.

Based on this, NEDO, as one of the largest public agencies promoting national R&D projects in Japan, conducts various projects. Firstly, since 2005, NEDO has published a fuel cell technology development roadmap for industry, academia, and government to share a long-term vision and work on technology development. In recent years, in response to growing expectations for the application of fuel cells to decarbonize heavy-duty vehicles such as heavy-duty trucks, a new roadmap on fuel cells for heavy-duty vehicles has been newly established starting from 2021, and the targets to be achieved around 2030, 2035, and 2040 and the technical issues to be addressed to achieve them have been summarized. Secondly, NEDO is promoting a technology development project related to Fuel Cells for a long time. With the aim of achieving the 2030 target of the Roadmap, elementary technologies related to PEFCs and SOFCs have been developed, and results comparable to the target would be obtained. Thirdly, NEDO has been striving to resolve technical issues related to the development of hydrogen stations for HDVs, as the large-flow hydrogen filling method and large-flow hydrogen metering technology have not yet been developed. NEDO has established the Fukushima Hydrogen Refueling Technology Research Center, a research facility capable of developing and verifying technologies for large-flow hydrogen refueling and large-flow hydrogen metering, with the goal of achieving a practical hydrogen refueling time of about 10 minutes for HDVs. Fourthly, NEDO is developing various types of water electrolysers, ranging from basic R&D such as the development of low-cost catalysts and electrolyte membranes to large-scale commercial demonstrations of 100 MW-class water electrolysers. In the automotive industry, the company is also conducting social demonstrations to promote the use of hydrogen in hydrogen/ammonia boilers and hydrogen burner furnaces. Finally, in order to establish a hydrogen supply chain, NEDO has been conducting RD&D projects that will contribute to the advancement of larger, more diverse, and more efficient large-scale marine transportation equipment, such as hydrogen carriers and domestic receiving terminals, and various types of equipment related to hydrogen power generation.