(Berlin) - “A rapid expansion of renewable energies in Germany is the central prerequisite for the energy transition, for effective climate protection and for the production of green hydrogen.” It is necessary to have a “more ambitious and comprehensive hydrogen strategy in Germany with clearly defined goals and rules as well as investment-friendly framework conditions " to accomplish. These are the results of a new study “Assessing the advantages and disadvantages of hydrogen imports compared to domestic production” by the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy.
The starting point for the investigation is the federal government's hydrogen strategy announced in June 2020, which primarily relies on the import of the energy source. However, this not only entails a high level of uncertainty, it could also lead to undesirable effects in the producing countries, such as a delayed energy transition, if the transformation of the local energy system is not taken into account from the outset. Possible consequence: “Germany is importing green hydrogen, but fossil fuels continue to fuel climate change in the producing country.” There is also a risk that hydrogen-using production sectors such as the steel and chemical industries will increasingly migrate to where the hydrogen is produced.
Imports are not necessarily cheaper
The assumption that imported hydrogen is generally cheaper is not generally true. “Depending on the country of origin, the decisive factor is the actually realizable electricity and transport costs,” say the authors. Hydrogen imports by ship “do not make sense for economic reasons, as they require energy-intensive liquefaction.” The costs for transport are three times higher than for transport by pipeline and are only worthwhile from a distance of 4.000 kilometers to the production country.
Many potential export countries are also heavily dependent on fossil fuels themselves. In Morocco, for example, fossil energy sources currently make up around 90 percent of the primary energy mix and would still play a major role in 2030. “In such regions, a heavily export-oriented hydrogen economy carries the risk of delaying the energy transition locally, with negative effects on climate protection,” says a statement from the co-client, the Federal Association of Renewable Energies.
However, if the green hydrogen is produced in your own country, “a positive employment effect and value creation” will occur. With the achievement of the 2050 climate goals, the additional value creation with a strategy strongly focused on domestic production would be up to 30 billion euros in 2050 and up to 800.000 jobs could be created.
Renewable energies as flexible electricity storage
With the National Hydrogen Strategy, we in Germany have so far only decided to consume green hydrogen on a large scale,” comments Simone Peter, President of the Federal Association for Renewable Energy (BEE): “Now the agenda must be to exclusively promote green hydrogen and then do so to produce here!” The federal government must provide incentives “to generate the appropriate number of electrolysers for green hydrogen, the infrastructure and, above all, sufficient electricity from renewable energies in our own country”. In this way, security of supply, affordability and climate protection would be combined in modern energy supply.”
Frank Merten, co-head of the Systems and Infrastructures research area in the Department of Future Energy and Industrial Systems at the Wuppertal Institute and project coordinator of the study, complains that there is currently “too much about the costs and too little about the needs and positive effects of domestic hydrogen production renewable energies”. “We need them as a flexible storage element for the integration of renewable electricity and as a basis for the decarbonization of domestic heavy industry.”
Hydrogen becomes competitive with wind power
Yann Girard, co-author of the study and manager at DIW Econ, emphasizes that “domestic production of green hydrogen also has enormous economic potential”. This should be “with a view to value creation and employment and should not be ignored when deciding how much hydrogen is imported from abroad”. Great synergies arise especially where excess quantities are converted into hydrogen as the use of fluctuating energy sources increases. Electricity from onshore wind turbines also enables competitive H2 production compared to H2 imports.
The study on “Assessing the advantages and disadvantages of hydrogen imports in comparison to domestic production” was commissioned by the Federal Association for Renewable Energy (BEE) and the State Association for Renewable Energy NRW (LEE NRW). The project partners were the Wupppertal Institute and DIW Econ GmbH. The study is available to download free of charge.
deep link
https://www.bee-ev.de/presse/mitteilungen/detailansicht/neue-studie-gruener-wasserstoff-aus-deutschland-befluegelt-klimaschutz-und-volkswirtschaft
Study
https://wupperinst.org/fa/redaktion/downloads/projects/LEE-H2-Studie.pdf
https://wupperinst.org/p/wi/p/s/pd/932/
Photos
Presentation of the National Hydrogen Strategy in June 2020 (from left: Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier and Federal Research Minister Anja Karliczek) / © BMBF/Hans-Joachim Rickel
