Green hydrogen is made by using electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis, a process that produces no other byproducts. The U.S. Department of Energy targets $1 per kilogram of hydrogen by 2030 (with a $2 interim target by 2025), while the European Commission's REPowerEU Strategy aims to produce 10 million tonnes and import 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen by 2030, rising to roughly 10% of EU energy needs by 2050.
How Is Green Hydrogen Produced, and What Makes Electrolysis Clean?
Green hydrogen is produced through electrolysis, a process that uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygenCITE:E1. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) states that electrolysis is a clean process, producing only hydrogen and oxygen, with no other byproducts or emissionsCITE:E6. Together, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the EIA describe the same underlying reaction — water plus electricity yields hydrogen and oxygen — as the technical basis of green hydrogen productionCITE:E1CITE:E6.
How Does Green Hydrogen Achieve Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions?
The U.S. Department of Energy states that hydrogen produced via electrolysis can result in zero greenhouse gas emissions, depending on the source of the electricity usedCITE:E2. This means the emissions outcome of electrolysis is conditional: the process itself yields only hydrogen and oxygenCITE:E6, but whether the resulting hydrogen is genuinely zero-emission depends on how the input electricity was generatedCITE:E2.
What Cost Target Has the U.S. Department of Energy Set for Green Hydrogen, and By When?
The U.S. Department of Energy has set a cost target of $1 per kilogram of hydrogen (H2) by 2030, with an interim target of $2 per kilogram by 2025CITE:E3. The DOE frames this as a staged cost-reduction path, moving from the $2/kg interim milestone in 2025 to the $1/kg target five years later in 2030CITE:E3.
What Is the European Union's Scale Outlook for Green Hydrogen, Near-Term and Long-Term?
The European Commission's REPowerEU Strategy, set out in 2022, targets producing 10 million tonnes and importing 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen within the EU by 2030CITE:E5. Looking further out, the European Commission projects that by 2050, renewable hydrogen will cover around 10% of the EU's energy needs, significantly decarbonising energy-intensive industrial processes and the transport sectorCITE:E4.
| Target | Value | Year | Source Entity |
|---|
| DOE interim hydrogen cost target | $2/kg H2 | 2025 | U.S. Department of Energy |
| DOE hydrogen cost target | $1/kg H2 | 2030 | U.S. Department of Energy |
| EU renewable hydrogen production goal | 10 million tonnes | 2030 | European Commission (REPowerEU) |
| EU renewable hydrogen import goal | 10 million tonnes | 2030 | European Commission (REPowerEU) |
| EU renewable hydrogen share of energy needs | ~10% | 2050 | European Commission |
What This Means
The DOE's cost trajectory ($2/kg in 2025, $1/kg in 2030) and the EU's REPowerEU volume targets (10 million tonnes produced plus 10 million tonnes imported by 2030) share the same 2030 horizon, even though one measures price and the other measures tonnageCITE:E3CITE:E5. The EU's longer-range 2050 goal — renewable hydrogen covering around 10% of energy needs — extends this scale-up well beyond the 2030 milestonesCITE:E4. All of this sits on top of a conditional premise: electrolysis itself only yields hydrogen and oxygen with no other byproductsCITE:E6, but the zero-greenhouse-gas-emissions outcome depends on the electricity source powering that electrolysisCITE:E2.
Author's Take・EffectStory 編輯部
The DOE and the European Commission are pushing on two different levers of the same technology: Washington's $2/kg-to-$1/kg path targets cost, while Brussels' 10-million-tonne production-plus-import goal targets volume, and both converge on 2030 as the deadline. That timing overlap is worth tracking, because the EU's tonnage targets only become economically viable at scale if electrolyzer costs actually fall toward the DOE's $1/kg mark. The other variable to watch is the electricity mix behind that electrolysis: the zero-emission claim isn't automatic from the process itself, since it only holds when the power source used to split the water is genuinely clean. The real test through 2030 is whether cost reduction and clean-power availability move in step with the tonnage commitments already on the books.