# Hydrogen Materials and Technologies in the Aspect of Utilization in the Polish Energy Sector
## 6 The Future of Hydrogen in Poland
Recently, political factors have played an important role in defining energy security standards, and their importance seems to be growing. There are known technological solutions that improve the efficiency of both coal gasification [73] and carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) systems [74]. However, the syngas obtained from coal gasification contains a number of toxic substances (sulphur, hydrogen chloride, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, mercury, arsenic, selenium), the removal of which requires the use of large amounts of water. Furthermore, given the current prices of carbon raw materials and CO\({}_{2}\) emission allowances in addition to the investment outlays, as well as the costs related to carbon dioxide capture and storage systems, the authors of [75] show this technology is not an attractive way of producing hydrogen for financial and environmental reasons. Based on the cost analyses presented in report [76], in the period after 2030, the costs of hydrogen production using steam reforming technology will rise by approximately 40%, and by 2050, they will be 187% of the current level. With these assumptions, there is a need to develop technologies for capturing and storing carbon dioxide, also owing to the production of hydrogen from biomethane as a result of the anaerobic fermentation of biogenic waste. There is no functioning CCS system in Poland; we are at the stage of implementing pilot installations [77]. An attempt to implement the first CCS installation at the Belchatow Power Plant over a decade ago was not successful. Two barriers, economic and social, posed as obstacles to its realisation. Nonetheless, we must be aware that with the drastically increasing costs of CO\({}_{2}\) emissions, the use of CCS technology is necessary to carry out energy transformation in Poland. An emission-free hydrogen industry, including hydrogen production, storage, transport, and conversion to the desired forms of energy (mainly electricity, heat, and mechanical energy, as well as new fuels), as shown in Figure 5, is highly energy-intensive and requires access to low-cost electricity to achieve profitability and market competitiveness. Figure 4: Industrial applications of hydrogen in Poland. The latest report commissioned by the European Commission [78] presents the costs of energy production from coal, nuclear, gas, and renewable energy sources. Taking into account the environmental and health costs, it occurs that energy production from onshore wind farms is the least expensive. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [79], using data presented in the work of [PERSON] et al. [80], show that for European countries, the highest potential and the lowest costs of generating energy from wind are in Great Britain, Sweden, and Poland. Meanwhile, the limited development of wind energy on land caused by the so-called distance act and the blocking of EU funds from the National Reconstruction Plan until the first quarter of 2024 have delayed the modernization of the Polish energy sector. It is worth noting that the forecast costs of hydrogen production from water electrolysis using electricity from renewable energy sources will decrease over the next 20 years [78], assuming a constant increase in the prices of CO\({}_{2}\) emission allowances and decreasing infrastructure prices. Even though the share of energy from renewable sources in the Polish energy mix increased to 30% in July 2023, the surplus energy generated from them, generated in periods of low electricity demand, cannot be fully utilised, owing to the lack of energy storage facilities in the energy system. Hydrogen production would stabilise the operation of renewable energy sources, enabling their maximum use when energy consumption is limited. Therefore, the further development of a new renewable energy generation capacity is closely related to the development of the hydrogen economy.