Germany can use green hydrogen to help it retain its industrial base in the transition to net-zero emissions, but the country’s energy industry is urging caution on how quickly the clean energy source can be deployed.

In 2020, Germany set a target to reach net-zero emission in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Like many countries, it hopes to use green hydrogen to reduce emissions in the industrial sector.

“The switch to green hydrogen will only be achieved a step at a time” Eickholt, Siemens Energy

The German government drew up a hydrogen strategy last year and earmarked €9bn ($10.8bn) to drive the industry’s development. But intermediate steps will be needed on the journey to a hydrogen economy, according to Siemens Energy board member Jochen Eickholt.

“The switch to green hydrogen will only be achieved a step at a time, using a wide range of transitional technologies,” he told the Tagesspiegel Energy Debate this week.

Germany’s transition and hydrogen policies are coming under renewed scrutiny ahead of federal elections in September, along with the country’s wider renewable energy policies.

Getting to a point where green hydrogen is widely used may mean using other types of hydrogen first as a transition fuel, according to power generator Uniper’s chief operating officer, David Bryson.

“We need to take this journey in steps. We need to transition the whole system to hydrogen and you do not do that in one step,” he says. “We all want to get to the point where we can have green hydrogen but it will take time.”

Uniper is “colour agnostic” on the type of hydrogen applied in the initial stages of the transition. The firm recently unveiled proposals to develop a hydrogen hub at the northern German port of Wilhelmshaven with capacity to supply 10pc of the country’s demand for the gas in 2030.

Commissioning of the new terminal—which would include ammonia import and conversion facilities as well as onsite hydrogen production—is planned for the second half of this decade.

Long-term strategy

Green hydrogen is currently at the point on the cost-curve that renewables were 25 years ago, according to Uniper CEO Klaus-Dieter Maubach.

2030 – Irena forecast for green hydrogen to be competitive

“We all understand that a system based on renewable energy requires long-term chemical storage, hydrogen is the answer,” he says.

Maubach highlighted the EU emissions trading system (ETS) as an incentive that could support green hydrogen development.

Germany has legislated for the phase-out of coal-fired generation by 2038 but environment minister Svenja Schulze said most capacity would be retired by 2030 as the phase out would accelerated by carbon pricing in the ETS.

Green hydrogen costs are already falling and the fuel could be competitive with other energy sources by 2030, International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) general director Francesco La Camera told the conference. “Many companies think it could be competitive by 2025,” he says.

Target sectors

The application of hydrogen in Germany should be aimed at specific industries and would not necessarily be a competitive option for applications such as residential heating, according to Frank Peter, director of thinktank Agora Energiewende.

“Hydrogen will be an important pillar of the energy transition, but only in certain areas,” he says, adding that priority applications should be as a reduction agent in steel production and as a feedstock in chemical and ammonia production.

In response to questions about the viability of converting coal- and gas-fired power plants to run on hydrogen, Eickholt says Siemens’ turbines can currently run on up to 30pc hydrogen—and this should rise to 100pc by 2030. He added that it would take about four years to ramp up the size of electrolysers to 1GW, from around 100MW currently.

Infrastructure will be key to the pace of the green hydrogen roll-out, panellists agree. Germany’s need to import hydrogen in the form of shipped ammonia would required electrolysers at coastal ports and pipeline capacity to bring the hydrogen inland.

Schulze highlights the need to accelerate the expansion of infrastructure for renewables and hydrogen. “Things have to speed up. This has to be one of the central priorities of government,” she tells the conference.

Hydrogen infrastructure will also be needed at all major airports, according to Airbus operations chairman Andre Walter. “There are no alternatives to using hydrogen in the long term for the aviation sector,” he says. “We will not achieve our climate targets without hydrogen.”

Author: Stuart Penson