How to ramp up the production of green hydrogen in just a few years and distribute it quickly across the country independently of the development of the H2 core network explained Jens Cruse, shipbuilding engineer, at the end of January this year before an expert audience in Hamburg.
“How quickly can we implement the energy transition?” This question has been posed for some time by the Port of Rotterdam, the largest European sea freight transshipment point. In the past – and still today – the huge industrial area was shaped by the oil and gas industry. Among other things, four large refineries are located there, which now need to be decarbonized. Boudewijn Siemons, CEO and COO of the Port of Rotterdam Authority, stated, “If it can be done electrically, it should be – with hydrogen otherwise.”
E-fuels – irrespective of their disputed suitability for the car sector – will be essential for the decarbonization of the transport sector. Hence German transportation minister Volker Wissing is continuing with his campaign to ramp up e-fuels. On June 4, 2024, he underlined his approach by hosting...
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.
A good 450 participants gathered at the specialist conference H2 Forum in Berlin February 19 and 20 to discuss innovative H2 technologies, strategies for the market ramp-up and the necessary regulatory framework conditions. A further 1,000 participants were connected online, even despite the considerable time difference in countries such as India and the USA.
The share of Cummins Engine brings joy: The share price rose to a new high for the year, after the company was able to settle a long-standing legal dispute – it was about non-compliance with emission standards for engines – with a penalty payment of 1.6 billion USD, and with that this chapter is...
#Shares from the crypto universe and from many technology companies are currently reaching new highs. Armaments are also booming on the stock market in view of the many global, some war-like, political conflicts. Only the topic of hydrogen and fuel cells is still leading a shadowy existence, with prices at crash level, which however – still – fully obscures the prospects of sustainably produced energy, and above all of hydrogen.
There is a lot that needs sorting out at a political level: A large number of industry representatives are waiting for politicians in Brussels and Berlin to put regulatory safety nets in place so they can make appropriate decisions about their investments. H2-international asked Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, Europe’s “Mister Hydrogen” and CEO of Hydrogen Europe, about the European Union’s revised Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) and its Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEIs). The interview also touched on Germany’s 37th Ordinance on the Implementation of the Federal Immission Control Act (37th BImSchV) as well as the recently revealed problems with fuel cell buses and their refueling stations. His guest article about H2Global appears on page 48.
After all, the Ampel Coalition leading the German federal government did reach an agreement shortly before the end of the year. And the ramp-up of the hydrogen economy will – again after all – not be completely slowed down, but will continue. But: Among others, the subsidies for erecting refueling and charging infrastructure (“Zuschüsse zur Errichtung von Tank- und Ladeinfrastruktur”) will sink in the climate fund Klima- und Transformationsfonds 2024 by 290 million euros (from 2.21 to 1.92 billion euros), and – the second but – the framework until now was and is for the ramp-up of the hydrogen economy in Germany simply not sufficient.
Coordination was hard enough when there were “only” four German ministries dealing with hydrogen – now there are six involved in updating the national hydrogen strategy, plus the chancellery. This participation of so many different departments is surely conclusive proof that hydrogen has become a key plank in the energy transition.
In Schöneiche, a suburb east of Berlin, the first self-sufficient hydrogen house is starting practical testing. A solar year-round storage tank should cover the demand for the modern timber house. The goal of the FlexEhome research project is to show how a home can be self-sufficient with electricity and heat if it is suitably well insulated. In the scope of this project, the participants are also testing grid-serving services.
Austria’s first and leading hydrogen research center HyCentA began life in 2005. Now promoted to become part of the COMET funding program (Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies), it is continuing its research on the campus of Graz University of Technology as a K1 center of excellence.
The results of the European Union’s HyResponder and HyTunnel-CS projects have been awaited with great anticipation. Numerous experts from industry, the fire service and research institutes been involved in these initiatives over the past few years, tasked with tackling the issue of fires and accidents connected with hydrogen applications. Now the International Fire Academy, the IFA, writes: “Hydrogen vehicles in tunnels: great danger for emergency response personnel.”
In the heart of Thüringen – around Erfurt and the northern part of Thüringer Becken – is where TH2ECO is situating the regional hydrogen market currently in establishment. A partnership consortium of regional specialists has been developing this project since 2021. The partners from different renewable energy fields are grid operators as well as energy and power suppliers who are driving forward the building and expansion of a sustainable H2 infrastructure and the establishment of the new energy carrier hydrogen. With it from the start has been Kilian Fromm, project manager at Green Wind Innovation, to whom German economy minister Robert Habeck handed the H2Eco Award for this project during this year’s Hannover Messe.
The kickstart for Enginius could hardly have turned out better. On May 16th, 2022, Faun Umwelttechnik GmbH & Co. KG introduced its new brand to the public in Bremen, and only two weeks later, the vehicle manufacturer from Niedersachsen was presented the first ever H2Eco Award during Hannover Messe. At the same time as the industrial fair, the subsidiary of the Faun Group also made a splash at IFAT 2022, the world-leading trade fair for environmental technologies, in Munich from May 30th to June 3rd.“Is that still a Faun?” With this question, Dr. Johannes F. Kirchhoff, managing partner of the Kirchhoff Group, greeted the numerous employees and visitors that had come to the presenting of the new brand at the Faun location in the far east end of the Hanseatic city of Bremen.
Although the price of Weichai Power fell away steadily in recent months, it has bounced back very strongly in recent weeks by more than 35 percent. Weichai, as a leading producer of diesel engines in China, is the perfect counterpart to the American corporation Cummins, which is very aggressively...
