July 24, 2023
Source: Energy & Management Powernews
A draft for the long-awaited update of the National Hydrogen Strategy is here. The first comments from associations are surfacing.
The draft update of the National Hydrogen Strategy (NWS) submitted by the federal cabinet is now with the National Hydrogen Council, the federal government's advisory body, for comment. It is dated July 10. It is now also available to our editorial team. As can be read on page one of the paper, it is a departmentally agreed version that has not yet been "approved by the cabinet" (we reported). When asked, the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) does not wish to comment on the contents at this stage of the draft. There were first reactions against it on the part of other federations.
Positive reactions
The federation of local federations (VKU) welcomed the plans to use hydrogen also as technology option with the heating of dwellings. The conversion of gas distribution networks to hydrogen as well as the use of decentralized hydrogen boilers should be examined, the draft states. "This means that our recommendation for more technology openness under the Building Energy Act is also echoed in the National Hydrogen Strategy," Ingbert Liebing, VKU CEO, is pleased to say. This is a step forward, he said, since the previously envisaged regulations had effectively excluded hydrogen for applications in the heating market.
Generally the VKU evaluates the draft to the NWS update as "altogether positive". It underlines the future cross-sectoral importance of hydrogen and hydrogen power plants, it says. The energy carrier must be used in all important sectors where it makes sense, the association emphasizes. It lists industry, transport, electricity and heat supply. The NWS draft's intention to keep the technology for hydrogen production open has met with a divided response: the ultimate focus is still on green hydrogen. However, with the goal of a rapid hydrogen ramp-up in mind, low-carbon hydrogen from waste or natural gas in conjunction with carbon capture and storage (CCS) should also be promoted - until sufficient quantities of green hydrogen are available.
The VKU sees this as a market-based advantage according to the formula "the greater the supply of hydrogen, the lower the prices." Liebing: "We very much welcome the fact that so-called orange hydrogen - hydrogen produced on the basis of waste and residual materials - is now also explicitly taken into account in the National Hydrogen Strategy. Same applies to the transitional opening opposite blue hydrogen, with whose production also carbon dioxide develops, to which the draft holds."
Negative reactions
In particular with the openness opposite blue hydrogen, be it also temporally limited, the criticism of the regional association renewable energies North Rhine-Westphalia (LEE NRW) sets. The association refers to the study "Meta-analysis of hydrogen costs and requirements for the CO2-neutral transformation" commissioned by the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy and published this year. It showed that blue hydrogen would not be available in larger quantities until the end of this decade, he said.
In addition, the inclusion of natural gas-based hydrogen poses the risk of stranded investments and exacerbates the chicken-and-egg problem between hydrogen production and demand. The focus should instead be on expanding electrolysis capacities and producing green hydrogen, the association urges.
The domestic generation potentials see the LEE NRW only stepmotherly treated. Although the draft recognizes the problem of Germany's excessive dependence on energy imports, it draws the wrong conclusion from this. "Instead of focusing on domestic hydrogen production, the federal government continues to focus on expensive imports by ship," explains managing director Christian Mildenberger. With an import strategy that relies on ship transport, the NWS is missing the opportunity to exploit domestic potential. At the same time, prices for hydrogen also increased as a result.
"Especially in the short term, domestic potential should be prioritized and exploited," Mildenberger demands, referring to the expansion targets for renewable energy generation set out in the German government's Easter package. Against this background, the association reckons that there will be repeated periods before 2030 in which electricity generation significantly exceeds demand. It is now a matter of realizing the necessary electrolysis capacities in order to be able to use surplus green electricity produced. He said that shutting down renewable energy plants is not an otpion, as this approach is not only inefficient, but also increases the cost of electricity during other hours.
Author: Davina Spohn
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