(Duisburg) – During a visit to the Center for Fuel Cell Technology (ZBT) at the University of Duisburg-Essen on Tuesday (February 21), Chancellor Olaf Scholz made it clear that Germany would “make greater use of hydrogen” in the future. Among other things, Scholz visited a hydrogen test filling station to test new refueling options for trucks and trains.
The ZBT at the University of Duisburg-Essen is one of the leading European research institutions for fuel cells, hydrogen technologies and energy storage. Around 150 employees work here on technical solutions for a future climate- and environmentally friendly mobility and energy system. Projects that are user-oriented are carried out in close cooperation with business and science.
Hydrogen partnership with Africa
However, Germany will “have to import green hydrogen in the long term,” explained Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger, who signed a hydrogen partnership with several African countries on the same day. The continent is ideally suited as a supplier due to its wind and solar conditions.
At the same time, Germany will “actively participate in ensuring that Africa can cover its own energy needs as quickly as possible,” emphasized Stark-Watzinger. To this end, science, politics and companies would be involved and specialists would be trained on site. The plan is to build an international, sustainable knowledge network. Germany has already committed 68 million euros to the hydrogen partnership.
Support for local climate centers
The main starting point are two centers co-founded by the Federal Ministry of Research (BMBF) to advance regional research in southern and western Africa on renewable energies and green hydrogen. Germany has already invested more than 250 million euros in this work.
Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger signed a declaration of intent in Berlin to establish a strategic hydrogen partnership. © BMBF / Hans-Joachim Rickel
These include the “Science Center for Climate Change and Alternative Land Use in Southern Africa” (Southern African Science Service Center for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management, SASSCAL), co-sponsored by the German Weather Service (DWD), which, according to the DWD, is intended to help “the effects of the “Containing climate change on agriculture and water resources in southern Africa.” Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Germany are involved.
The West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL), in contrast, is an association of institutes from Benin, Burkina Faso and Ghana with the aim of combating the consequences of climate change for the rural population and to secure their livelihoods.
Photos
Chancellor Olaf Scholz visits the Center for Fuel Cell Technology in Duisburg. © Federal Government / Bergmann
