Economics Minister Reiche no longer gives green hydrogen priority

Federal Economics Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU) wants to accelerate the "development and expansion of an infrastructure for the production, storage, import and transportation of hydrogen". This is according to a new draft bill for a law on the ramp-up of the coveted gas published on Monday. The focus is to be on "simplifying and digitalizing planning, approval and award procedures", also in order to achieve climate targets. Compared to an earlier attempt by the traffic light coalition, Reiche has weakened the requirements for green hydrogen, which is produced based on renewable energies.

"The aim is to secure the supply of hydrogen", states paragraph 1 of the draft acceleration law published by the newsletter service Table.Briefings. To this end, only "further" "greenhouse gas-neutral, safe and environmentally friendly production" is to be guaranteed. The addition that this must be mainly "from renewable energies" is missing.

In addition, the "overriding public interest", which in the previous draft was only intended for electrolysers that use at least 80% renewable electricity from 2029 onwards, is now to apply regardless of the electricity used. The Bundestag recently passed a law with similar wording to speed up the expansion of telecommunications networks. Another priority of the Reiche draft: "In addition, the exploration and extraction of natural hydrogen and helium as important raw materials for the German economy and industry will be facilitated."

ArcelorMittal and Leag pull out

The traffic light saw green hydrogen as the cornerstone of the ecological transformation of industry. However, this ambitious project is facing major hurdles. One recent setback is ArcelorMittal's withdrawal from the green steel production projects in Bremen and Eisenhüttenstadt. The world's second-largest steel group waived aid amounting to 1.3 billion euros because the projects were not economically viable in this country due to high energy costs and insufficient subsidies. Furthermore, the energy company Leag has canceled its plans to build an electrolyser, a key component for the production of green hydrogen in Saxony.

In addition to these challenges, there has been a change of course regarding the planned backup gas power plants. Unlike her predecessor Robert Habeck (Greens), Reiche intends to forgo a mandatory conversion of these plants to hydrogen.

All colors

"We will accelerate the development of a hydrogen economy and make it more pragmatic," write the CDU, CSU and SPD in their coalition agreement. "We must use all colors in the ramp-up" – so not just green hydrogen.

At the time of the former grand coalition, the German government set itself the goal of making Germany a global pioneer in the use of hydrogen as a climate-friendly energy source. According to the paper, "only green hydrogen is sustainable in the long term". In 2021, the focus was therefore still on electrolysis, in which water is broken down into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity from wind and solar power, for example.

However, the executive already assumed at that time, about market requirements, that "CO₂-neutral hydrogen" would also have to play a role, at least temporarily. In principle, its greenhouse gas balance could amount to net zero. However, harmful emissions would have to be removed from the atmosphere through reduction measures. Examples include blue and turquoise hydrogen. In the case of the former, the aim is to capture the CO₂ produced during production and store it underground, for example. Turquoise hydrogen is produced by thermally splitting methane – often with the help of natural gas.

(emw)