Politics and Law

The biggest obstacle to hydrogen imports is not cost but the slow pace of EU regulation, according to Cornelius Matthes of DII Desert Energy in the podcast The Hydrogen Elevator. Laurent Antony of the International Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the Economy (IPHE), an intergovernmental partnership working to establish common rules for hydrogen, shares that assessment. At the same time, he points to significant progress and stresses the need to develop shared solutions.

A coalition of 16 German and European business associations is calling for a European hydrogen alliance at the member state level. Germany is to take a leading role in this. Although progress is being made, it remains behind the requirements.

A study commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Transport sees potential for hydrogen primarily in airport ground operations in the short term. A comprehensive development of infrastructure for liquid hydrogen is currently not considered sensible.

For hydrogen to be able to be used as an important part of the energy transition comprehensively in industry, mobility and energy supply in Germany, new lines must be built and existing natural gas pipelines must also be upgraded for hydrogen transport. This can be challenging, as hydrogen is explosive and attacks the materials of the pipes. Professional material testing creates the necessary security regarding this.

Two projects from partners of the trinational hydrogen network 3H2 receive funding from the state program ELY. Electrolysers with a total capacity of 2 MW are to be built in Achern and Kehl. The goal is to establish regional hydrogen hubs.

When the European Hydrogen Bank’s first pilot auction (Innovation Fund Auction IF23) was announced on Sept. 5, 2023, it drew much attention. April 30, 2024, then saw the publication of the results for the pilot auction, for which the European Union was making EUR 800 million of support available. Seven projects from northern and southern Europe were successful in obtaining funding. The aim of the hydrogen auction is to accelerate the rollout of green hydrogen and send price signals by narrowing the cost gap between green and fossil-based hydrogen.

The European Commission is allocating nearly 720 million euros to seven projects for renewable hydrogen in Europe. Together, the involved stakeholders aim to produce 1.58 million tons of renewable hydrogen over ten years, thereby avoiding more than 10 million tons of CO2 emissions. Of the selected...