A technical committee is a body of experts interested in participating in the development of standards in a specific field – in this case, hydrogen technology. The tasks of the committee include identifying needs for standardisation, drafting standards and keeping them up to date, and participating in international and European standardisation.

‘In the case of hydrogen technologies, regulations have been in development for several years on a European and global scale, but Estonia has not yet contributed to it,’ explained Allan Niidu, Chair of EVS/TC 80. ‘Now, this opportunity has been created.’

The committee will operate in the form of ‘homework’ and meetings. The technical work is done and draft documents are created independently, with meetings taking place to fine-tune positions and decide on the final text of the regulations. The first task of EVS/TC 80 is to provide an overview of the global hydrogen standards that are already in place or in the process of being established. ‘From now on, we will also be able to send an Estonian representative to the relevant committees of the European Committee for Standardization and the International Organization for Standardization,’ Niidu explained.

Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland do not currently have a technical committee directly dealing with hydrogen standards, although Finland is involved in the development of standards for the analysis of hydrogen and other gases.