Hydrogen a focus of German government funding for real-world test projects
Clean Energy Wire
Hydrogen projects are one of the key themes of 20 test projects selected for funding by the German government. Germany ultimately plans to put 100 million euros per year into laboratories to test sustainable energy technologies under “real conditions and on an industrial scale”. "We want to become the world's number one in hydrogen technologies,” German Economy and Energy Minister Peter Altmaier said. An additional 200 million euros of funding have been allocated for such laboratories in the regions most affected by Germany’s planned phase-out of coal-fired power generation “in order to underline the special importance of traditional energy regions for the energy system of the future,” Altmaier said. Other projects selected for funding focus on storage solutions and how to optimise neighbourhood energy systems.
Using renewable electricity to produce hydrogen and CO₂-neutral methane could solve some of the Energiewende’s toughest challenges. Producing gas from wind and solar power could provide carbon-neutral fuel for heating and transport, and pave the way for large-scale seasonal energy storage. But so far, power-to-gas is used only in some 30 research and pilot facilities around Germany. Experts have said the government must scale up the technology to make it available – and affordable.
