The two-part trade fair concept was particularly well received by exhibitors. In addition to the halls at the fairgrounds, the Munich city center was also used as an exhibition area. Especially suppliers in the area of fuel cell drives had new things to present. They recognize the high market potential and feel that the technology will penetrate the passenger car sector through the commercial vehicle sector.
If you read about any of the major hydrogen projects underway, you will be unable to avoid Siemens Energy. Orders like the recent ones worth EUR 700 million should be on the agenda. Even the problems with its wind power subsidiary Gamesa seem solvable because – regardless of short-term problems (price increases in raw materials and component shortages) – the market is growing strongly. Here, I would venture to suggest to the company that it integrates wind farms into existing projects and offerings via Power Purchase Agreements, or PPAs, from the outset. Then you would be able to view a wind farm from a different return perspective and margin.
Producing high-purity hydrogen from the blades of decommissioned wind turbines is a most ingenious idea. If this can be scaled up successfully, it would solve a number of challenges in one fell swoop: For one thing, it would save the effort of shredding, recycling or otherwise disposing of old blades. Instead their composite material could be usefully reclaimed. Secondly, it would open up an additional hydrogen source to help satisfy the rapidly rising demand for hydrogen. And thirdly, the process would result in an extremely clean form of carbon dioxide that could be used in various branches of industry. But before any of that is possible, a whole range of issues must first be overcome.
Electrolytic green hydrogen from offshore wind
Heligoland could, in future, become the new focal point for offshore hydrogen from the North Sea. The remote German island occupies a strategic central position in the German Bight and has excellent port infrastructure, making it ideally placed for a proposed hydrogen hub and liquid carrier supply chain. Under the multipart AquaVentus scheme, initiatives will be rolled out that incorporate the entire hydrogen value chain, including transportation to the mainland.
Just in time for the federal election, the responsible federal ministries announced that the federal government had “reached a decisive milestone with one million e-cars on German roads”. To be honest, the second headline of the press release says: “More than 50 per cent of these electric vehicles are purely battery-powered.” Almost half are hybrid vehicles.
The Nationale Organisation für Wasserstoff- und Brennstoffzellentechnologie (NOW) GmbH has produced a new overview: During the Supplier Marketplace on 18 August 2021, the Berlin agency presented the “Atlas of Hydrogen Networks in Germany”, which is intended to support both regional and nationwide searches for potential partners.
Guest commentary by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Franz Josef Radermacher
Germany focuses too much on national goals in the fight against climate change (climate nationalism). However, these are of little relevance in the global context. This focus leads to unfavourable strategies, for example in the areas of green electricity, green hydrogen and synthetic fuels. All considerations are dominated by scarcity and too high costs. Because in Germany people want to produce themselves what should be imported wisely. Just as 70 per cent of energy has been imported up to now.
National Platform Future of Mobility reveals its position paper
The chances of fuel cell technology making a breakthrough in mobility applications are looking good. Various developments are helping the rollout, expansion and deployment of fuel cell technologies in many different areas of the transportation sector. These include the technological maturity of the automotive industry, potential synergies in connection with other hydrogen applications and sectors, considerable changes to the regulatory framework and new political ambitions, as articulated in Germany’s national hydrogen strategy. But how is the German and European vehicle manufacturing industry poised when it comes to fuel cells?
Fifth part of the Regions series: HyStarter Rügen-Stralsund
What role can the production of green hydrogen play in the future for regional added value creation in a rural, structurally weak, but large area region with a high share of renewable energy production capacities? Which generation paths make sense at different locations, and which framework conditions must be fulfilled in order to achieve this? Where is there potential for hydrogen applications in the district of Vorpommern-Rügen? With these questions in mind, the HyStarter Region Rügen-Stralsund started a one-year strategy process in December 2019 to develop a vision, define fields of action, analyse selected locations and technology concepts, and adopt a roadmap until 2030 that describes a whole bundle of measures to be implemented in the future.
Results of Fraunhofer’s PLATON research project
Three Fraunhofer institutes in Germany – IAO, IIS and IMW – have been tackling key questions on the nature of digital value creation in relation to green hydrogen. The research comes as part of the PLATON project which has been investigating the platform economy in the hydrogen sector. The results of the project have now been published in a study. The outcome is a hybrid value creation model that helps companies to take a systematic approach to digital value creation.