2592015). Transmission losses are seen as a problem with large amounts of energy, which is why the need for expansion of new high-voltage networks is considered to be large (SSAB, 2021). In both areas, technology is being developed to overcome these energy losses, but this means that technology is expensive (My Fuel Cell, 2015; Alpman, 2020). Green hydrogen gas is little used today and the primary reason is that it is expensive. Producing one kilogram of green hydrogen currently costs €5, which is comparable to the price of gray hydrogen at €1.5 per kilogram (The Agility Effect, 2020b). Alpman (2020) explains, for example, that green hydrogen gas today is far too expensive to produce and that it is not adapted for large-scale production. Problems such as the cost of electricity varying with the weather and the need for new types of membranes and catalysts must be overcome in order to reduce prices. The industry organization Jernkontoret also describes the production and storage of green hydrogen as the biggest technological obstacle for projects such as Hybrit at present (Jernkontoret, 2020). Hydrogen has been praised by many. For example, the then Bush administration invested US$1.2 billion, in 2003 dollars, in research to develop hydrogen-powered cars with the ambition of replacing fossil fuels (Macfie, 2003). They were convinced that the new technology with fuel cells would be cheap enough to use commercially in cars by 2010. Reality proved otherwise, due to energy losses and expensive costs, but the hope lives on. Today, the European Union has taken over the dream and has now invested €430 billion up to 2030 in its EU Hydrogen strategy (Vätgas Sverige, 2020).

4.3

Hydrogen Steel and Electricity Consumption

Hybrit and H2GS are estimated to consume 67–72 TWh in 2045, unless H2GS expands its production from 2030 (Dickson & Törnwall, 2021). To put this in context, Sweden’s electricity consumption in 2020 was 134 TWh (Swedish Energy Agency, 2020). That is, all other things being equal, these two projects alone would account for an increase of just over 50% in 2020 consumption.

Today, Sweden has a surplus of electricity almost every day of the year. In 2020, 159 TWh was produced, and after consumption, this left 25 TWh in surplus, which C. Sandström and C. Alm

260was exported to neighboring countries (Swedish Energy Agency, 2020). Note that exports are measured as net volumes; exports and imports occur all the time due to transmission losses over long distances. Furthermore, there is an opportunity cost, in terms of emissions, of using the otherwise exported electricity.

To some extent, the otherwise exported electricity can be used to supply these projects with electricity, but for the remaining portion of the projects’ energy needs,