Tunisia Quality Infrastructure Green Hydrogen Case Study

Hydrogen is recognized by the international community as a key enabler to accelerate the attainment of an energy transition that is compliant with a 1.5-degree scenario. According to IRENA’s World Energy Transition Outlook (WETO) 2023, a record 300 GW of renewables was added at the end of 2022. There is also a growing interest in leveraging renewables to produce so called green hydrogen via electrolysis, for use in hard-to-abate sectors like industry and heavy-duty transport.

As the sector starts to grow, the green hydrogen value chain is becoming increasingly complex and capital intensive, across generation, processing, and distribution infrastructure. An often overlooked but important component that needs to be developed in tandem is the corresponding Quality Infrastructure (QI) – to ensure that the production, distribution, use and trade of green hydrogen is safe as well as sustainable.

QI is the national system of organisations, policies, legal framework, and practices required to assure quality, safety and sustainability of products and services. It comprises several key components, including metrology, standardisation, accreditation, and conformity assessment (including testing, certification, and inspection). QI creates the technical basis for assuring the development of the green hydrogen sector. It helps to reduce and mitigate safety, financial and reputational risks in the sector, while supporting the achievement of the intended positive sustainability impacts of investments.

IRENA together with the German Metrology Institute (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, PTB), with financial support from the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany (Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung, BMZ), is implementing a project entitled “Quality Infrastructure (QI) for Green Hydrogen: technical standards and quality control for the production and trade of renewable hydrogen”. The goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive roadmap for the development and implementation of the QI services needed for green hydrogen.

This project also endeavors to apply the proposed roadmap approach to a pilot country (in the form of a case study). The pilot country chosen for this project is Tunisia, where the government has demonstrated a strong commitment to the integration of green hydrogen within its national energy transition strategy.

IRENA together with support from PTB and the Tunisian Department of Industrial Infrastructure and Technology (Direction Générale de l'Infrastructure Industrielle et Technologique, DGIIT) have developed a case study which provides insights on the status of green hydrogen-relevant QI in Tunisia. This analysis provides perspectives on the readiness of its national QI system to cater to the requirements of the ongoing development of the green hydrogen economy.

To validate the findings from this case study, IRENA, PTB and DGIIT organised an in person half-day in-person workshop with the following objectives:

• Present results from IRENA Tunisia QI green hydrogen case study to national hydrogen stakeholders
• Present the proposed action plan and recommendations on how to address QI gaps
• Solicit comments and feedback from stakeholders on the case study results as well as action plan
• Invite stakeholders to share additional recommendations to be included in the action plan
• Identify at least one recommendation that can be implemented by June 2024 by IRENA and PTB

IRENA would like to thank implementing partner PTB and funder for this work, BMZ. Support, co-ordination and advice from DGIIT is gratefully acknowledged.