As far as hydrogen falls under the existing regulation of the gas and electricity markets the Federal Network Agency BNetzA is the competent authority on a federal level. Japan’s automakers have put hydrogen fuel cells in their cars, while consumers there are buying home energy units using the fuel.

“The interest from the private sector is really huge. It will have the capacity to produce over 900 tonnes of hydrogen per year in this first phase, however, when fully expanded, Siemens expect this to rise to 2000 tonnes.

Personalisation cookies collect information about your website browsing habits and offer you a personalised user experience based on past visits, your location or browser settings. The German Government expects that around 90 to 110 TWh of hydrogen will be needed by 2030.

In an interview with French media BFM TV, Le Maire described himself as a “nuclear advocate.”. Around 22 TWh of green hydrogen would be needed for German refinery and ammonia production to switch to hydrogen. If hydrogen is to have long-term prospects, capacities for generating electricity from renewables (particularly wind power and photovoltaics) must be systematically improved. Moreover, it could be made available to the transportation sector through hydrogen filling stations and to industrial consumers through storage caverns. The EU’s biggest economies are investing billions of euros in building clean hydrogen fuel capacity to decarbonise heavy industry and transport, France's finance minister Bruno Le Maire hopes to collaborate with Germany on hydrogen projects (Pic: Stuart Isett for Fortune/Flickr). The country has earmarked €9 billion for the expansion of hydrogen production as part of a €130 billion economic stimulus package, with the aim of ramping up its capacity to 5 GW by 2030 and 10 GW by 2040. Carbon-free hydrogen is produced by electrolysis. In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the German Government announced the importance of Germany’s energy transition, and the importance of the role of hydrogen in this transition. But having a backbone of dedicated hydrogen pipelines would form a reliable basis for transport, they say.

If hydrogen is to be used in road transport, refuelling infrastructure must be expanded as needed. The starter network with a length of more than 1,200 km will connect demand centres in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony with green hydrogen production projects in Northern Germany. Four separate ministries in Berlin have been working on a blueprint to substitute the lightest element for oil, natural gas and coal. Ministers are cutting deals in Europe and Africa to ensure supply of the fuel from many sources. All Rights Reserved, This is a BETA experience. Germany is racing to forge hydrogen production deals with partner states abroad that fulfill several basic conditions.

This represents 10 percent of the annual CO2 emissions from German industrial processes and the manufacturing industry. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. We do this to optimise the mix of channels to provide you with our content. The German TSOs have proposed a “hydrogen starter network 2030” as published in their proposal of the Gas Network Development Plan 2020-2030 (“NDP”). Transport applications offer great potential for hydrogen uses. Other types of hydrogen like blue hydrogen are not covered by these definitions at all. That plan is informed by lessons learned in decades of importing oil and gas, where price and supply are distorted by a cartel, said a top aide.

The project is aimed at producing green hydrogen from offshore wind and recovering the waste heat generated. These cookies “remember” that you have visited a website and this information may be shared with the providers of analytics services (see details in our privacy policy). In scenario I access regulation may be appropriate especially in case of increasing access demand. The EU estimates that by 2050 clean hydrogen could meet 24% of the world’s energy demand. The aim of Germany’s energy transition is to replace nuclear and conventional fuels with renewable energy. At the moment, more than two-thirds of the 70 million tons of hydrogen produced a year comes from natural gas.

A global race to ramp up production of the clean fuel has begun with the EU Commission unveiling its hydrogen strategy in July, which aims to increase capacity to 40 GW and generate 10 million tonnes of clean hydrogen by 2030.

https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/themen/energiewende/energiewende-im-ueberblick-229564 Her group is calling for the natural gas system to carry a mandated share of renewable and decarbonated gases, including biomethane, synthetic methane and hydrogen, starting at 1% in 2021 and rising to 10% by 2030.

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding the project with more than €60 million. In June 2020, after long discussions the German Government announced the National Hydrogen Strategy. Hydrogen-based mobility is seen as an alternative option for those applications where using electricity directly is not reasonable or technically feasible.

The introduction of CO2 pricing for fossil fuels used in transport and the heating sector is an important element to support green hydrogen production and will be complemented by a reduction of the EEG surcharge. The network would in particular connect industrial clusters which can generate and use the hydrogen, as well as offshore wind farms and solar power plants. Most of the hydrogen used in industry is grey hydrogen produced from natural gas , whilst only 7% of current demand is provided by green hydrogen from electrolysis. You can change these settings at any time via the button "Update Cookie Preferences" in our Cookie Notice. Hydrogen could be applied in a wide range of sectors such as local public passenger transport, heavy-duty road transport and commercial vehicles. There is no specific regulatory body which is responsible for the regulation of hydrogen projects. The planned salt cavern would be the first cavern in the world to store green hydrogen, and would be specially equipped for the storage of up to 50 million m³ of hydrogen. An early first draft of the plan shows that Germany is willing to subsidize the technology initially to spur production capacity in the coming decades -- but only up to a point. In view of the forthcoming market launch phase, the aim is to ensure that the national activities of science, industry and government continue to take place under a common umbrella. With a power intake of 6 MW in its initial development phase, Siemens said the electrolysis plant will run solely on renewable energy and be CO2-free. Germany may import as much as 45 million tons of green hydrogen annually by mid-century, up from zero today, according to Lukas’ ministry. By 2030, the starter network will primarily consist of pipeline conversions, while only about 100 km will be newly built dedicated hydrogen pipelines.

From 2016 – 2026 public funding will amount to EUR 1.4 billion. Germany Boosts Green Hydrogen and PtX with National Hydrogen Strategy. This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Germany unveiled its national hydrogen strategy in June. Since decentral hydrogen production is not sufficient to cover demand from industry additional long-distance transmission lines are required in scenario II.

In certain areas, hydrogen may also provide an alternative for cars. “We are far away from large hydrogen projects.”.

The government has said its investment in carbon-free hydrogen will cut France’s CO2 output by 6 million tonnes, the equivalent of Paris’ annual emissions. The NIP2 programme builds on the maturity of technology and market availability attained in the first generation of equipment. The Russian government is urging the country's leading energy companies to quickly expand their hydrogen production capacities and is considering using the controversial offshore gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 to transport the synthetic gas to Germany, Andre Ballin writes for the Handelsblatt.

A domestic market for the production and use of hydrogen has to be established. At present renewable fuels account for 43% of the German electricity mix (as at the end of 2019). To get emission cuts back on track, the government announced in July that 20 new research laboratories will receive a total 100 million euros ($110 million) a year to test new hydrogen technologies for industrial-scale applications. Chancellor Angela Merkel government is looking to meet goals under the Paris Agreement on climate change. Green hydrogen is made by converting wind or solar electricity into hydrogen through electrolysis -- a zero-emission but expensive process that consumes a lot of energy. Our Cookie Notice is part of our Privacy Policy and explains in detail how and why we use cookies.

Nicola De Blasio, a senior fellow in energy technology innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School, told Climate Home News it would take more than two countries to build a functioning European hydrogen market.

Within the initial five-year project period, an electrolysis plant with a capacity of 30 MW is to be installed. Hydrogen gas is produced as a byproduct of industrial processes or power generation, and can then be used as a fuel itself. In the past three weeks, the Economy Ministry unveiled 20 labs to research the fuel, and natural gas pipeline owners asked for rules that would allow them to carry more of the lightest element. Electricity from renewable sources or nuclear is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. It would also be a way to deliver more energy from traditional fossil fuel power generation (so-called ‘brown or grey hydrogen’).

A fuel-cell vehicle consumes approx. A hydrogen-powered car in Brandenburg, Germany. EU Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans, who presides over the European Green New Deal, has championed hydrogen as a renewable fuel that can easily be integrated into existing energy infrastructure, as opposed to wind and solar which require the construction of new farms and grids.