Levelised Cost of Hydrogen Calculator

Use default values or your own input values to calculate the cost of producing hydrogen in Europe by low temperature electrolysis with various electricity sources.

The Levelized Cost of Hydrogen (LCOH) calculator allows the calculation of hydrogen production costs via low temperature water electrolysis (alkaline or PEM) in the different EU27 countries, Norway or the UK. A selection of four different electricity sources is provided in the calculator (Wholesale, PV and, Onshore or Offshore wind).

The calculator allows to either use default values provided by Hydrogen Europe or user specified values. The default values can change depending on the selection of the country and the electricity source. The user specified values do not change automatically, and have to be adapted by the user. The functionalities of the LCOH calculator and the methodology behind is explained in detail in our manual.

Reference year is 2023 for all default values.

Assumptions

  • For PV and onshore wind, it is assumed that a direct connection to the electrolysis unit is used, excluding grid fees and electricity taxes. For wholesale electricity and offshore wind, it is assumed that grid connection is used, including grid fees and electricity taxes.
  • The subsidies and additional revenues are always ‘0’ under the default values. Any subsidies or additional revenues you might receive for a project, can be captured in the user specified values.
  • The LCOH calculator assumes the cost of capital as 6% and the number of operating hours as 4,000 per year when using wholesale electricity (by taking the average of the 4000 cheapest hours). Other OPEX reflected in the LCOH cost include both the stack replacement costs and other OPEX as expressed in the table as a function of CAPEX.
  • Please note that the default data does not show actual hydrogen production costs from operational water electrolysis plants in Europe but is a best estimate of what production costs could be expected to be achieved given current costs of multi-MW state-of-the art electrolysis system and latest available annual electricity costs.