In the hydrogen age, Germany has to import electricity from renewable energies, especially from the sunny south.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The National Hydrogen Council (NWR) wants to link the establishment of hydrogen partnerships with foreign countries to strict sustainability criteria. This emerges from a resolution of the committee, which is available to the Handelsblatt.
The NWR recommends to the federal government, for example, to only accept additional renewable energies for hydrogen electrolysis, to promote the overcoming of energy poverty in the exporting countries and to avoid distribution conflicts over water at all costs.
“This decision is more than a pointer in the direction of the new federal government. The coalition agreement must offer a clear commitment to these sustainability criteria and a perspective for their implementation. This also includes central responsibility for hydrogen in the climate or energy ministries, ”said Christiane Averbeck, Managing Director of Climate Alliance Germany, the Handelsblatt.
Averbeck is a member of the NWR. The NWR advises the federal government on the implementation of the National Hydrogen Strategy adopted last year.
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The National Hydrogen Council is convinced that Germany’s cooperation in building hydrogen partnerships with countries in the South can help strengthen local value creation, create jobs and develop new skills in partner countries.
Improve people’s living conditions
“From a geopolitical point of view, especially in today’s exporting countries of fossil raw materials, new, potentially climate-neutral sources of income and corresponding long-term sustainable business models can be secured and the living conditions of the local people can be improved”, says the NWR’s decision.
Hydrogen partnerships are one of the linchpins of the National Hydrogen Strategy. This is based on the realization that Germany will probably have to import up to 70 percent of its green hydrogen requirements due to limited land potential when expanding electricity production from renewable sources. Along with water, electricity from renewable sources is the most important “raw material” for the production of green hydrogen. Countries with good conditions for wind and solar power are therefore predestined for building hydrogen partnerships.
When implementing the sustainability criteria, the Council relies on existing instruments. First and foremost, he mentions the “H2 Global” project, for which the federal government laid the financial basis a few months ago. Behind “H2 Global” stands a foundation that brings potential suppliers of green hydrogen together with potential buyers on the basis of tenders. Long-term supply contracts are to be concluded.
A large part of the hydrogen that will be required in the future will have to be imported.
(Photo: dpa)
As an instrument to bring producers and buyers together, “H2 Global” uses differential contracts. This closes the gap between the expected production costs of green hydrogen and the willingness to pay on the part of customers from industry. The concept was developed by the federally owned Society for International Cooperation (GIZ). In the federal budget, 900 million euros were made available for this. The projects are to run for ten years.
The Hydrogen Council is convinced that “H2 Gobal” and other models supported by the German government for building hydrogen partnerships could help implement standards. These standards do not necessarily have to be newly developed, they could rather consist of an intelligent combination of existing and supplementary regulations, according to the decision of the Council. In addition, “a suitable certification system coordinated in the EU is urgently required” for the import of hydrogen and its derivatives.
The framework for the industrial scale is missing
A study by the Epico think tank shows that there is still a long way to go to building a complete hydrogen value chain. Epico is a new think tank that is supported by institutions such as the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and the European Climate Foundation.
It is true that the industry in Germany is “well positioned in terms of research and development of cutting-edge technology as well as plant and mechanical engineering,” according to the study. The transformation of energy-intensive industries in the direction of climate-neutral production with hydrogen technologies, however, has “not yet fully begun”.
At present, investments are primarily made in pilot plants. The framework conditions for the conversion to hydrogen technologies on an industrial scale are currently not in place for industrial companies.
“Investment hurdles can be overcome through political and regulatory measures, but important decisions must be made on the way to a self-sustaining hydrogen market,” the study says. “When building a German hydrogen industry, supply, demand and infrastructure need to be ramped up at the same time,” the authors continue.
Business consortia are a way of bringing supply and demand together
Consortia from different companies along the value chain are a way of bringing supply and demand together and balancing out the different risks. In general, increasing the demand for hydrogen is seen as an essential key to solving the problems.
The study is based on interviews with industrial companies from industries such as chemicals and steel as well as with utilities and technology providers.
The study defines three priority political and regulatory fields of action: the compensation of cost disadvantages, for example through contracts for differences, the strengthening of demand, for example through quota regulations, and the expansion of the infrastructure for hydrogen transport and the generation of electricity from renewable sources.
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