Estimating global production and supply costs for green hydrogen and hydrogen-based green energy commodities

Green energy commodities are expected to be central in decarbonising the global energy system. Such green energy commodities could be hydrogen or other hydrogen-based energy commodities produced from renewable energy sources (RES) such as solar or wind energy. We quantify the production cost and potentials of hydrogen and hydrogen-based energy commodities ammonia, methane, methanol, gasoline, diesel and kerosene in 113 countries. Moreover, we evaluate total supply costs to Germany, considering both pipeline-based and maritime transport. We determine production costs by optimising the investment and operation of commodity production from dedicated RES based on country-level RES potentials and country-specific weighted average costs of capital. Analysing the geographic distribution of production and supply costs, we find that production costs dominate the supply cost composition for liquid or easily liquefiable commodities, while transport costs dominate for gaseous commodities. In the case of Germany, importing green ammonia could be more cost-efficient than domestic production from locally produced or imported hydrogen. Green ammonia could be supplied to Germany from many regions worldwide at below the cost of domestic production, with costs ranging from 624 to 874 $/t NH₃ and Norway being the cheapest supplier. Ammonia production using imported hydrogen from Spain could be cost-effective if a pan-European hydrogen pipeline grid based on repurposed natural gas pipelines exists.