The e-Journal on Hydrogen and Fuel Cells
Now that’s what you call luck. Right around the editorial deadline of our sister magazine HZwei, the German government debated, passed and presented its strategy to support the hydrogen and fuel cell industry.
Five federal ministries were involved in drafting the strategy. Their compromise agreement sets a 2030 target of “only” 5 gigawatts in installed electrolyzer capacity, not 10, as the German science minister Anja Karliczek strongly proposed.
“The paperwork has been finalized.” With this statement, NOW chair Klaus Bonhoff announced that NIP 2.0 was about to be ready for implementation. During e4ships’ final conference in Hamburg on Sept. 7, 2016, he also told H2-international that the remake of the National Innovation Program Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology would still be made available this year. Parts of it have already been made public (see Germany Prepares for Technology Rollout Program and Interview with Klaus Bonhoff from NOW).
The German CHP Act (KWKG) has been a long-time source of subsidies for stationary units producing heat and power as efficiently as possible. Once every few years, these types of laws are revised and naturally, the revisions spark heated debates months before any political decision is made. Just in the nick of time – shortly before the end of last year – the Bundesrat finally approved the CHP Act 2016, so that it could go into effect on January 1.