Ministry of Transport does not approve H2 funding for the time being
February 22, 2024
Source: Energy & Management Powernews
The Federal Ministry of Transport no longer intends to approve new funding for hydrogen for the time being. The reason for this is irregularities in the awarding of funding.
The website of the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) does not show the stop in funding for hydrogen projects, but it does show the reason for this: Klaus Bonhoff's recent dismissal from his duties as Head of the Hydrogen Department due to irregularities in the awarding of funding in 2021. According to the German press agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa), the now publicized freeze on the approval of new funding stems from an internal letter from State Secretary Stefan Schnorr.
The letter states that ongoing funding projects are to be processed in accordance with existing regulations. New projects could only be carried out after approval by the state secretary level in the event of "factual and temporal irrefutability".
Last week, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) decided to dismiss Bonhoff from his position with immediate effect. The reason for the dismissal was that a relationship of trust no longer existed. In addition, a head of department had been transferred.
The matter concerns an award of funding from 2021 during the term of office of Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU). The "HyMobility" innovation cluster of the German Hydrogen Association (DWV) had received funding from the Ministry of Transport at the time. Bonhoff is suspected of having influenced the granting of the funding, in particular due to a recently discovered email correspondence. On the one hand due to friendly relationships with people from the DWV, and on the other hand due to his position as head of the federally owned NOW GmbH for many years. NOW stands for "National Organization Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology".
