The transmission system operator Thyssengas invited participants to the “Thyssengas Dialog” event format for the first time on May 2, 2022. Around 80 participants on site and up to 200 viewers in the livestream from politics, industry, science, start-ups and the energy industry discussed the necessary framework conditions for a rapid hydrogen ramp-up.
This is a topic that has once again gained a great deal of importance against the backdrop of the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine. Hydrogen has a key role to play in the energy supply of the future. On the one hand, increased use can reduce dependence on imports and increase security of supply; on the other hand, green hydrogen could make a substantial contribution to decarbonizing domestic industry. North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony form a central cluster in Germany and Europe in this respect. The first edition of the Thyssengas Dialog took place hybrid – on site at the Dortmunder U and online via an interactive livestream.
Pick up speed now
In his opening address, Dr. Thomas Gößmann, CEO of Thyssengas GmbH, highlighted the factors of speed and pragmatism as crucial to the current phase. “We are currently experiencing a turning point in energy supply. A time in which existing certainties are disappearing into thin air, prohibitions on thinking are overturning and processes are being accelerated.
“I see an opportunity to move quickly from talking to doing and to join forces to push ahead with the hydrogen ramp-up. The existing transmission network is H2-ready with just a few adjustments and can connect hydrogen producers with consumers.” This solution, he said, is not only pragmatic, but also necessary from an economic point of view. “The necessary prerequisite for this is that politics, especially now – in the initial phase of the market – creates investment security and plannability for the players through clear rules.”
Energy industry is ready – great interest from domestic industry
Thomas Westphal, Lord Mayor of the City of Dortmund, emphasized the innovative power of the Ruhr region in his welcoming address. Large cities like Dortmund stand ready with courage and ideas for technological changes. Now a hydrogen system must be established that strategically combines the many individual projects of the companies and application sectors.
In his keynote speech, Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart, Minister for Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, explained the outstanding importance of hydrogen not only in the Ruhr region but at the state level as a whole: “Good starting conditions are already in place in North Rhine-Westphalia. Industry and the energy sector are at home here, and this is where the greatest CO2 savings potential lies.
“We have a strong research and innovation landscape, existing infrastructure and stable partnerships with our European neighbors. We want to use this to develop NRW into a leading location for hydrogen technology.” However, due to current developments in the energy industry, a push forward is still urgently needed here, he added.
A major key to driving the hydrogen economy forward more strongly in Germany and Europe now is the networking of all players along the H2 value chain. As part of a panel, Dr. Thomas Gößmann discussed with Dr. Hans-Jürgen Brick, Chairman of the Management Board of Amprion GmbH, Dr. Sopna Sury, Chief Operating Officer Hydrogen at RWE Generation SE, Dirk Lange, Managing Director of Jäckering Mühlen- und Nährmittelwerke GmbH, Christopher Frey, Senior Public Affairs Manager at Sunfire GmbH, Klaus Müller, President of the German Federal Network Agency, and Oliver Krischer, Parliamentary State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection, how solution-oriented cooperation between the individual sectors can be shaped.
The stakeholders agreed that only with the help of green hydrogen will it be possible to ensure security of supply and climate protection in energy supply in the future. Planning security and speed were also identified by the panel as key criteria for the ramp-up of a hydrogen economy. Dirk Lange, representing medium-sized industry, explained that there is a firm will on the part of consumers to switch to hydrogen as an energy carrier. This was also confirmed by the other representatives of the corporate side, who are all in the starting blocks for large and long-term investments.
The panelists’ assessments of whether the current national and European regulations provide a suitable framework for a rapid market ramp-up for hydrogen were much more contradictory. This also applied to the use and color of hydrogen. Klaus Müller, President of the German Federal Network Agency, called for working with the existing regulatory framework.
For him, this was a question of good preparation. He was critical of cross-subsidization of hydrogen networks by gas consumers or admixture of hydrogen, for example in the heating market. Like Klaus Müller, Oliver Krischer sees hydrogen from renewable electricity as the only form of generation. This green hydrogen should be used primarily in industry.
In contrast, the industry representatives were of the opinion that the current regulatory framework does not take into account the speed factor in particular. The artificial separation of natural gas and hydrogen in Germany is a brake on investment, as Dr. Thomas Gößmann emphasized. What is needed is an undogmatic and technology-open approach and, above all, rapid industrial scaling across all sectors. Dr. Sopna Sury also called for courage for speed from politicians. She addressed in particular the very long and bureaucratic procedures for IPCEI applications (Important Projects of Common European Interest) and the still outstanding definition of green power criteria by the EU Commission (Delegated Act). Electrolysis should not be disadvantaged in national planning procedures, Sury said.
The ball is in politics
In the final discussion, representatives of theAmpel coalition spoke about what politicians are doing to ensure a rapid H2 market ramp-up and what the concrete plans for the coming years look like. A central point that was repeatedly raised in the audience on site and in the livestream: Speeding up planning and permitting processes for renewables.
As part of the federal government’s Easter package, the first foundations have been laid for this, explained Felix Banaszak, state chairman of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen NRW and member of the German Bundestag for the Duisburg constituency.
However, citizen acceptance of distance regulations is an issue where further persuasion is needed, reported Carl-Julius Cronenberg, spokesman for SMEs and free trade for the Free Democrats on his Hochsauerland constituency. In addition, he emphasized the need for market-based incentives for industry so that hydrogen can be used as an “opportunity energy” as quickly as possible. The hydrogen representative of the SPD parliamentary group, Andreas Rimkus, made it emphatically clear that larger quantities of hydrogen are needed than previously envisaged in the coalition agreement: “To achieve this, we must bring together the production, transport, storage, distribution and use of hydrogen and promote it through regulation.”
