Germany to also support hydrogen produced with CO2 capturing under upcoming strategy update – media.
With an update of Germany’s 2020 national hydrogen strategy, the government aims to support not only hydrogen production with renewable electricity, but also from fossil gas, where CO2 is captured and stored, reports Table.Media. This is known as blue and turquoise hydrogen. However, hydrogen made with nuclear power will not receive state support, reports Table.Media on the latest draft of the hydrogen strategy update.
While the aim is still to use hydrogen for certain industry processes, air and shipping transport and back-up power plants, other applications have been more disputed because of more efficient alternatives using electricity – like heat pumps and e-cars.
The government now says that for road transport, hydrogen should only be used for heavy duty commercial vehicles, while in the heating sector it would be used in “rather isolated cases,” writes the news service. The government is set to decide the strategy update this Wednesday (26 July).
In the effort to curb global greenhouse gas emissions, hydrogen made with renewable electricity is often seen as a panacea for sectors with particularly stubborn emissions, such as heavy industry or aviation. It is also seen as a way to bolster the electricity system with hydrogen-fired power plants as backup during times of low renewable power generation. How much hydrogen is available, and at what time, will ultimately determine the extent to which it can be used.
Earlier drafts of the update had already stipulated that Germany will need 95 to 130 terawatt hours (TWh) of hydrogen in 2030 – including derivatives, such as ammonia, methanol or synthetic fuels (the initial 2020 strategy assumed a demand of 90-110 TWh).
The country will have to import 50-70 percent of this, says the government in the draft – initially mainly in the form of ammonia by ship, writes Table.Media. The rest is to be produced in Germany, on the one hand by means of electrolysers from green electricity. These would only produce 20 to 30 TWh per year by 2030. The rest will be produced as “grey” hydrogen – from natural gas with the release of CO₂, as is the case today.
Germany to also support hydrogen made with CO2 capturing under upcoming strategy update – media, July 25, 2023