H2Werkstatt RheinBerg – Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis, Oberbergischer Kreis and city of Leverkusen open hydrogen workshop.
The district administrators Stephan Santelmann, Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis, and Jochen Hagt, Oberbergischer Kreis, as well as head of department Alexander Lünenbach, city of Leverkusen, opened the newly founded ‘H2Werkstatt RheinBerg’ in the vicinity of the office of the REGIONALE 2025 agency on the Zanders site in Bergisch Gladbach this morning.
Stephan Santelmann, District Administrator.
With the joint ‘H2Werkstatt RheinBerg’, we want to join forces to advance the future development and expansion of a ‘green hydrogen economy’ for our region on the basis of well-founded analyses.
“The aim is to develop and implement measures and projects for the production, transport and application of green hydrogen in a network that has been set up. The aim is to pave the way for a future hydrogen competence centre, the ‘H2Kompetenzzentrum RheinBerg’.”
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As a guide and intermediary, the ‘H2Werkstatt RheinBerg’ will offer a platform to the strong network, which will consist of local partners. H2Werkstatt RheinBerg – Combining hydrogen competences a central task of the H2Werkstatt RheinBerg – under the leadership of the Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis – will be to identify, address and bring together the companies and organisations based in the region in a self-organizing network.
Ideally, all actors in a value chain for green hydrogen – from hydrogen production to storage and distribution to hydrogen applications – will become active. The networking is to be accompanied and supplemented by imparting knowledge on the subject of hydrogen and the integration of research and teaching.
A first step will be to make existing and already started projects visible. This includes hydrogen production, for example from waste or biomass or by means of green electricity from hydropower and photovoltaic systems, etc. The “green” hydrogen obtained in this way will be used to operate emergency power generators or as an energy carrier (electricity/heat/mobility).
First detailed concept “H2R Hydrogen Rhineland” in 2020
In the course of the state competition ‘Model Region Hydrogen Mobility NRW’ in 2020, the possibilities of producing, transporting and using green hydrogen in the region were described together with a total of seven cities and districts in the concept ‘H2R – Hydrogen Rhineland’.
“This concept has now been further concretized on behalf of the REGIONALE 2025 agency for our REGIONALE 2025 area ‘Bergisches Rheinland’ and then the idea arose to develop a joint strategy for the installation of a ‘H2Werkstatt RheinBerg’,” says Santelmann, who shows the development of the commitment.
“The H2Werkstatt RheinBerg is also intended to act as an interface between the Rhine rail and the Bergisches Land. The cooperation is therefore open to other partners and can be extended to other local authorities in the region. The production and use of green hydrogen in our region is our common goal. I am very pleased that the Rhein-Sieg district has now also expressed its interest in being admitted to the H2Werkstatt.” Attractive, sustainable location policy secures jobs Santelmann further argues:
“We want to bundle the existing competencies in the field of green hydrogen technology and expand the network with other actors from business, research and teaching. We are aware that a sustainable orientation will make our location and our region more attractive for companies – and this also means securing and expanding jobs.”
From the H2Werkstatt RheinBerg to the H2Kompetenzzentrum RheinBerg Worldwide, the realization is maturing that climate change can be caused by humans and can only be changed by humans.
Extreme weather conditions and the resulting serious consequences make the need for consistent change visible.
Jochen Hagt, District Administrator, explaining the motivation of the participating municipalities.
With the founding of the H2 workshop, we are taking an important step on the way to a sustainable, climate-neutral and low-carbon orientation of economic processes in our region.
“Therefore, the newly founded ‘H2Werkstatt RheinBerg’ is intended to connect competencies and supporters by the end of 2023 and to show and prepare the way to a hydrogen competence center – ‘H2Kompetenzzentrum RheinBerg’.”
Combining competences, investments and visions in a targeted manner Head of Department Alexander Lünenbach is convinced that joint action is the driving force behind well-founded economic development.
Alexander Lünenbach
The energy transition and climate protection require innovation and dialogue.
“The H2Werkstatt RheinBerg is the result of an inter-municipal exchange in which skills, investments and strategies are used in a targeted manner in the long term. As Aristotle aptly summed it up: ‘The whole is more than the sum of its parts.’ The hydrogen competence network, which will be created in the coming years, will open up sustainable potential for our region and for the participating companies and organizations.”
“Therefore, the ‘H2Werkstatt RheinBerg’ is an example on many levels of how competencies should be combined in a targeted manner.”
Fundamental experience with the use of hydrogen by the bus fleet of Regionalverkehr Köln GmbH (RVK) already exists in the region. In addition, the REGIONAL 2025 lighthouse project of the “Green Mobile Farm” is an important anchor.
The experiences and developments from this project have to be multiplied and rolled out into the region. The municipalities should benefit from this know-how in their projects, e.B.dem conversion or expansion of their own depots in order to also cover their energy requirements in a climate-neutral manner. Thanks for staying up to date with Hydrogen Central.
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H2Werkstatt RheinBerg – Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis, Oberbergischer Kreis and City of Leverkusen open hydrogen workshop, October 30, 2021
