THE NEW PODCAST FROM THE HYDROGEN ELEVATOR
in cooperation with HZwei
THE HYDROGEN ELEVATOR is the hydrogen podcast in cooperation with HZwei, the German hydrogen magazine, and H2international, the English-language e-journal for the international hydrogen community.
Two guests who are truly involved in decision-making join host and moderator Jürgen Pfeiffer at the microphone for a real conversation — focused on the issues that matter most. Two guests, one topic, 30 minutes: short enough for a lunch break.
The recordings take place on site with the guests and are not post-produced. “What you hear is what you get.”
THE HYDROGEN ELEVATOR is published monthly — always on the last Tuesday of the month — on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all major podcast platforms, as well as on hzwei.info and h2-international.com.
Episode 4: Partner or Supplier — What Hydrogen Partnership Does Europe Need Between H2 Global and H2 Local?
Live from a glass cube at The smarter E Europe in Munich: Cornelius Matthes, CEO of Dii Desert Energy, and Dr. Laurent Antoni, Executive Director of the IPHE, wrestle with the strategic core question of European hydrogen policy.
Six dollars a kilo, they say. Too expensive, they say. But Matthes dismantles the myth: green hydrogen can be produced today for under three euros per kilo. What Europe lacks is not the price — it is the courage to make a binding, long-term commitment.
Antoni shifts the debate: the biggest barrier to a global market is not cost, but 30 different certification schemes — and the absence of a shared language. The ISO standard published in April is the first step toward comparing apples with apples.
The real point: Europe confuses partner with supplier. Treating an energy partner as a cheap source of supply reproduces exactly the dependency that Russia taught us. True partnership means co-ownership — shared technology, shared standards, long-term commitment.
The verdict of both guests: Brussels can barely commit for twenty months. The desert model needs twenty years. That gap is the real construction site of European energy sovereignty.
THE HYDROGEN ELEVATOR is taking a short summer break and returns in September — in cooperation with HZwei, the hydrogen magazine.