Rubal Dua | KAPSARC

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Presentation Description

The exploration of emerging policy and economic research priorities within the hydrogen sector stems from the urgent need to address pressing global challenges, including climate change, energy security, and the transition towards sustainable energy systems. Hydrogen has emerged as a promising energy carrier due to its versatility, potential for decarbonization across various sectors, and compatibility with existing infrastructure. However, realizing the full potential of hydrogen necessitates a comprehensive understanding of the complex interplay between policy frameworks, technological advancements, and economic viability. We highlight key emerging economic and policy research priorities for enabling the hydrogen sector using a three-pronged approach. It includes analysing media reports through a research lens, corroborating the determined research priorities with recent literature, and consulting a diverse group of experts in policy, energy, economics, and industrial applications fields. Expert opinions on the importance of the identified research challenges in enabling the hydrogen sector, their novelty, and their feasibility are evaluated using a multi-criteria decision-making framework. We delineate nine overarching themes that correspond to distinct research challenges and prospects out of which the following four received particularly high scores - (i) exploring government strategies in hydrogen development, from comparing global incentives to setting domestic hubs and net-zero technology targets, highlighting their role in enhancing competitiveness, investment appeal, and addressing producer challenges; (ii) evaluating hydrogen's potential in industrial applications, power generation, and energy storage, focusing on its techno-economic performance, environmental impact, and financial viability compared to electrification, fossil fuels, and renewable energy alternatives; (iii) exploring how policies impact hydrogen fuel cell versus battery electric vehicle deployment, global strategies on hydrogen and electric trucks influencing market and technology progress, and the economic analysis of hydrogen shipping fuels against other alternatives; (iv) assessing developed nations' strategies for hydrogen investments in developing countries focusing on funding projects for export and local energy transition, evaluating costs and risks for investors, and navigating corporate governance and interest rate challenges associated with developing countries. Pursuing this new research agenda should help inform policymakers, and industry decision makers to ensure a smooth ride towards hydrogen enablement. Finally, to further prioritize the identified set of research challenges and to make the presentation lively and engaging, a live audience poll would be conducted during the presentation.

Speaker Biography

Rubal Dua, a research fellow at KAPSARC, is actively engaged in exploring emerging challenges and priorities in sectors that critically influence transportation and infrastructure, viewed through the lens of energy economics, policy, and sustainability. He holds a Ph.D. from KAUST, Saudi Arabia, an M.Sc. from the University of Pennsylvania, USA and a B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee.

Co-presenters

Kannan Govindan
University of Adelaide

Prateek Bansal
National University of Singapore

Rami Shabaneh
KAPSARC

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