meal Industry is demanding more speed from politicians when ramping up the hydrogen economy in Germany. “We would like to invest much faster,” said Markus Krebber, head of the energy supplier RWE, at the Handelsblatt hydrogen summit on Wednesday in Essen. However, funding applications would “lie too long”. “We have to move forward more pragmatically and faster.” Germany must finally “start”.
This requires above all: a clear concept. Unlike the Netherlands, Germany has no target for the expansion of a hydrogen network, Krebber criticized. “Long-distance gas network operators are not approved for what contributes to the target image, but only what is necessary today,” he said.
Volkmar Dinstuhl, head of the Multi Tracks segment at Thyssen-Krupp, agreed with Krebber. It is important that Germany has a vision that defines exactly where the country is headed, “so that you have at least this minimum of security as a basis for investments.” In the Multi Tracks unit, Thyssen-Krupp has everyone for sale, for renovation or bundled subsidiaries that are about to be closed, including the hydrogen subsidiary Nucera.
Hydrogen is considered a key technology for the energy transition to succeed. It is intended to help decarbonise energy-intensive sectors such as the steel and chemical industries and serve as a storage facility for electricity generated from renewable sources. The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine has once again increased the need for hydrogen. On the one hand, hydrogen can help make industry less dependent on Russian natural gas. On the other hand, hydrogen is becoming more attractive with the high gas prices.
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But even State Secretary for Economic Affairs Oliver Krischer (Greens) admitted that the ramp-up of the hydrogen economy was being hampered by regulatory problems. “I could talk for hours about all the absurd hurdles we have that prevent meaningful developments,” he said. The Ministry of Economics is already trying to remove obstacles as much and as quickly as possible.
The head of the Multi Tracks segment at Thyssen-Krupp calls for a “minimum of security as a basis for investments” in the hydrogen future.
For his part, Krischer also criticized the EU. Planned EU funding projects are not getting off the ground quickly enough. Regarding the planned creation of an “Important Project of Common European Interest” (IPCEI), which would give the hydrogen economy a higher priority, he said: “It’s a tragedy, I can’t put it any other way.” the EU Commission, but it is progressing much too slowly.
Plea for blue hydrogen
Despite all the criticism of the current hurdles, business and politics are optimistic that hydrogen will find its way into the German economy on a large scale. Krischer said: “We will see a ramp-up of the hydrogen economy, and there is a lot going on at the moment.” The problem that not enough hydrogen is available for future demand will not be resolved that quickly. But for the projects that are currently planned, Germany will also create the necessary generation capacities.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs is working on removing the “absurd hurdles that prevent meaningful developments” as quickly as possible.
RWE boss Markus Krebber also said: “I believe that the current price level for fossil energy, which is very high, will accelerate the green transformation as much as possible.” An entire industry is currently developing in the hydrogen sector.
However, it is important that Germany does not ignore blue hydrogen. Blue hydrogen is produced using natural gas. The CO2 that is produced is split off and stored. Nevertheless, it is considered less climate-friendly than green hydrogen, which is produced from renewable energy using electrolysis. “Blue hydrogen is more readily available and can be extremely helpful in scaling this industry faster,” Krebber said.
One problem with green hydrogen is that it is only 100 percent green if the electrolyser that produces it draws the electricity directly from the renewable power plant, such as a wind or solar farm. If, on the other hand, the electricity comes from the power grid, it may also contain electricity from coal or nuclear power plants.
Krebber criticized this: “It sounds logical, but it means that the whole industry only comes up with a time delay,” he said. When it comes to heat pumps and electric vehicles, nobody asks whether the electricity in them is really green.
However, Krischer defended himself against the accusation that blue hydrogen was per se a taboo for the Greens. “Obviously, to get a hydrogen economy up and running, you need transitions,” he said. “If you were to say from the outset that we would only start with green hydrogen, which is particularly problematic in terms of quantity in terms of production, we will probably never get going.” However, it should also be borne in mind that Germany is already fighting for it without additional hydrogen production to secure their own gas supply for the coming winter. “The cheap Putin gas will never come back,” emphasized Krischer.
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