Politics and Law

At the beginning of May, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron appeared so united in their positions that French media dubbed them "Merzcron." Industry associations from the energy sector believe this renewed Franco-German alignment should be leveraged.

The HyDresden initiative is calling for electrolysis and green hydrogen to be anchored as eligible infrastructure projects within the planned €500 billion special fund. Linde Engineering, Sunfire, and the Fraunhofer IKTS aim to establish Dresden as an international hydrogen hub and to expand domestic value creation.

The US is investing a lot of money in renewable energies and also in hydrogen. With the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the Biden administration has released large sums of money to promote sustainable technologies. Even if at least some of this is likely to be reversed under a new Trump administration, a number of states have embarked on this path and - like New Mexico - are focusing on hydrogen. HZwei spoke to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham about this in Rotterdam in the summer of 2024.

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.

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...

The decision has finally come. In mid-February 2024, the European Commission approved 24 German IPCEI projects aka Important Projects of Common European Interest. Within the framework of IPCEI Hydrogen, funding is granted to large-scale projects across the entire hydrogen value chain – from H₂ production and transportation to storage infrastructure and industrial deployment.