A voice from the business world

“Hydrogen is one of the keys to achieving climate neutrality in Germany. That is why it is now all the more important for the German government to promptly follow up its National Hydrogen Strategy with concrete action.”

We are facing a great task: to achieve climate neutrality in Germany by 2045. It’s an ambitious goal, but nevertheless, it can be done. To be able to make the energy transition a reality, we need to use renewable and decarbonized gases. Hydrogen, in particular, offers considerable potential in this regard, as it can store energy and release it again without emitting CO₂. Given its wide range of possible uses, it also has a particularly versatile skillset, ranging from climate friendly heat and energy production for industry and private households to environmentally friendly mobility.

Existing potential

One major advantage of hydrogen is its ability to store electricity over long periods of time without loss − this makes it a key building block for the energy transition. As a result, the use of hydrogen enables energy to be transported and released again at a later point in time without emitting CO₂. To fully realize the potential of hydrogen, we absolutely must make use of existing infrastructure − specifically Germany’s gas storage capacity, the largest in the European Union. Some of the existing capacity for natural gas storage could also be used for climate-neutral gases in the future, making an important contribution to a flexible energy transition in the process. For example, up to 100 percent of the capacity of underground cavern storage facilities, which account for almost two-thirds of the volume of German gas storage facilities,
could be used to store hydrogen. This means that in the future, electricity from wind and solar energy could be stored in the form of hydrogen, for example, to compensate for seasonal fluctuations in electricity generation and heating requirements.

In addition, Germany already has a gas infrastructure comprising a 500,000 kilometer network. This infrastructure will be the basis for building a hydrogen economy that extends across sectors and national borders. Distribution networks, in particular, are of great importance here. The task now is to upgrade networks, storage systems and end devices to make them hydrogen-compatible. At the BDEW, we are advocating making use of the tried and tested regulatory framework for gas networks by integrating hydrogen networks within it. In addition to gas networks, pure hydrogen networks will also be required, for example, in industry. The first regulatory basis for this was created with the last amendment to the German Energy Industry Act (Energiewirtschaftsgesetz, EnWG).

We also require a trading system for renewable and decarbonized gases such as hydrogen. The BDEW has put forward a concrete proposal for this. From our perspective at the BDEW, an important element here will be a standardized source determination system that can be used by end consumers, as well as in industry and trade to clearly trace the sources of renewable and decarbonized gas. This way, consumers can make a transparent choice about what form they want to purchase these gases in (“clean choices”). Production for the market would take place in Europe initially, then shift to non-European supplier countries in the future.

The urgent need to remove investment blockers

Hydrogen should be produced in a way that is both climate-neutral and increasingly renewable, so that its high potential for climate protection can be fully exploited. The energy industry has a central role to play here in supplying the green electricity that could produce a significant portion of our hydrogen requirements in the future. This green hydrogen could then make a major contribution to substantially reducing CO₂ emissions. Expanding our use of renewable energy sources is a vital factor in enabling this. However, to achieve this expansion, we must remove the remaining investment blockers, and overcome obstacles to the use of wind and photovoltaic energy. After all, obstacles that hinder expansion in the field of renewable energies also hinder the production of renewable gases. As a beacon of hope for carbon-neutral energy production, hydrogen is also one of the keys to achieving a climate-neutral Germany by 2045. That is why it is now all the more important for the German government to promptly follow up its National Hydrogen Strategy with concrete action.