Planned new German gas power plants must be switched to hydrogen – industry and NGO alliance
Clean Energy Wire
A group of environmental NGOs and hydrogen industry companies have called on the German government to ensure that new gas-fired power plants that are planned as backup for the electricity system will eventually be converted to run on green hydrogen. This could provide the hydrogen ramp-up in the country with a much-needed boost, strengthen the industry and enable the decarbonisation of the electricity supply, the group argued.
The government should use the planned auctions for state support for the new power stations to fix “a binding decarbonisation pathway, which includes transparent but ambitious targets for the transition to green hydrogen,” said the alliance. At the same time, the government should avoid an oversized buildout of new power plants and initially only introduce auctions for “a no-regret minimum” of capacity.
The former coalition government at least for parts of the auctioned volumes of gas power plant capacity had planned to be switched to run on hydrogen instead of natural gas after several years of operations, but the government collapsed before a final decision on the relevant regulations was made. Germany’s new leadership has said it aims to have built up to 20 gigawatts of gas power plants by 2030 – so far without presenting any ‘hydrogen-ready’ requirements. It is in talks with the European Commission about the conditions under which the EU would allow Germany to provide state aid for new power plants.
