Over the next decades we have to reduce the carbon emissions of our societies to near zero. The need for this drastic transition has been widely recognized and is shaping current national and European policy making, as can be seen in the strong commitments to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 in the European Green Deal and the clear emphasis on a green recovery in the EU COVID recovery package. Key for the decarbonisation of many sectors, such as transport and residential energy consumption, is the availability of cheap renewable electricity. The intermittency of solar and wind power and the difficulty of satisfying thermal energy demand, for example in the basic material industry, require the use of an alternative low emission energy carrier for many applications. Green hydrogen, obtained by the electrolysis of water, is currently seen as the best fit for filling this gap in our future energy mix and, as such, future energy scenarios need to consider the availability of hydrogen. The objective of this thesis project is to incorporate hydrogen in the demand sector of MASTER model of the Spanish energy system for the year 2050, developed in-house at IIT. After understanding the functioning of the MASTER model, the student will have to add a simplified representation of hydrogen demand. Results of the updated model will allow the student to analyze the impact of a hydrogen economy on the Spanish energy system in the year 2050.
Álvaro Serrahima de Bedoya
