Offshore wind power stations generate significantly more electricity and more regularly than their onshore counterparts. In the lead project (Leitprojekt) H2Mare, scientists are working to exploit this potential – and to produce green hydrogen and derivative products directly at sea in the future. Current progress is being made, among other things, in the coupling of wind turbines and electrolyzers.
The MAN subsidiary Quest One, formerly H-Tec Systems, celebrated the opening of its “Gigahub” in the north of Hamburg at the end of September 2024. It wants to produce flexible PEM electrolyzers with meter-high stacks on a large scale.
“Two years ago, we were still discussing an ‘All Electric World’ in Berlin. Now it's clear we need both – molecules and electrons.” With these words, the state of Niedersachen’s economy minister Olaf Lies summarized well at this year’s Hannover Messe where we stand today. At the political level, however, this seems to not have been reached by everyone. Otherwise, the quasi funding freeze for H2 activities at present can hardly be explained. Reason enough for the Clean Energy Partnership (CEP) to send a pleading letter to Berlin (see p. 33) – and trigger for a palpable dispute among economic experts.
The cooperative FRHY project, which forms part of the German flagship hydrogen initiative H2Giga, is aimed at scaling up electrolyzer manufacturing. Increasing electrolyzer production rates requires new technical solutions. To facilitate the development of these essential technologies a model stack was created as a point of reference. Named the FRHY Stack, it is a high-efficiency electrolyzer with the potential for industrial mass production which also supports knowledge and technology transfer.
The portfolio managed by the author with name BZVision (exchange-traded fund, BZ stands for the German term for fuel cell) on Wikifolio (www.wikifolio.com) perfectly reflects the development of fuel cell shares. After growth of over 100 percent per year in the years 2018 to 2020, the portfolio is...
In “Klimakommune” Saerbeck, a municipality in the regional district of Münster in Nordrhein-Westfalen, an AEM-based megawatt-electrolyzer was put into operation in May 2023. According to the manufacturer, Enapter, this is the “world’s first” plant of this kind. Vaitea Cowan, co-founder and CCO at...
Unrestricted hydrogen production that is not aligned with the supply of renewable energy significantly increases electricity generation by fossil fuel power plants, thus raising the levels of carbon dioxide emissions. Not only is that disastrous for the climate, it’s also something we absolutely...
In the research project H2-Quartiere, the consultancy Steinbeis-Innovationszentrum Energieplus (here abbreviated SIZ E+) is investigating until 2024 how decentralized hydrogen production near to consumers through electrolysis (ELY) can be implemented. On behalf of the German ministry for economy and...
Up to now, Germany has had an energy supply system that’s as centralized as possible. Large power plants generated electricity and heat, which was then distributed nationwide by means of an extensively branched infrastructure. With the emergence of renewable energies two decades ago, the idea of decentralization became increasingly widespread: since local solar and wind power plants or biogas plants generate electricity or heat on site, this energy can be used locally, without the need for loss-ridden transports. This basic idea is now also being pursued with hydrogen production by electrolysis. Whether such an approach might be sensible was investigated by the Reiner Lemoine Institut in its newest study “Netzdienliche Wasserstofferzeugung” (grid-serving hydrogen production). The results were presented in an online press conference March 10th, 2022.
For the production of the 14 TWh of green hydrogen capacity the German federal government expects by 2030, no more water is needed than what a city with around 200,000 inhabitants consumes.
