PE Live: Regulation needs to catch up with hydrogen development

The rapid emergence of hydrogen as a potential major fuel and energy storage medium means regulation will need to be overhauled—and certain countries are already taking an early lead.

Legislators and regulators around the world need to create new rules in many areas before hydrogen can be utilised on a widespread basis—including safety standards, pipeline regulations and potentially taxation—a legal expert warned on the PE Live 7 webcast last week. While the challenge of creating regulatory frameworks “does not strike me as being insurmountable” there are many issues to be resolved and there are wide differences between countries in the amount of progress that has been made so far, according to James F Bowe Jr, partner, corporate, finance and investments, at law firm King & Spalding. Blending green hydrogen, which is created using renewable power, into domestic natura