World Hydrogen Day and the hourly correlation of 2030

Hydrogen Technology World Expo marks World Hydrogen Day on 8 October, a date taken from hydrogen's relative atomic mass of 1.008, and announces Hamburg, 20 to 22 October, with more than 1,000 exhibitors and more than 200 speakers.

What has changed since the capacity-announcement phase is the regulatory clock. Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/1184, of 10 February 2023, accepts monthly temporal correlation between renewable electricity and fuel until 31 December 2029 and requires hourly matching from 1 January 2030.

Article 11 opens the second window: installations in operation before 1 January 2028 are exempt from the additionality rules until 1 January 2038, and the exemption does not cover capacity added after that date. Member States may bring the hourly rule forward to 1 July 2027.

The same electrolyser is worth different amounts depending on the year it starts up. Anyone taking a European project to Hamburg has a verifiable question for the table: under which of the two regimes will the plant sell, and on what power contract.