December 12 (Renewables Now) – Germany’s National Hydrogen Council has presented a roadmap with actions that need to be taken in order to ensure enough storage capacity for hydrogen and support the transition from natural gas to a hydrogen economy.
In the paper, published last week, the Council underscores the need for political support to promote investments in hydrogen storage as demand in Europe’s largest economy is expected to exceed 5 TWh by 2030 and then increase significantly.
Storage is key to ensuring the security of supply and Germany already has a solid capacity of cavern storage facilities in operation that can be converted to store hydrogen. These facilities can be connected to the nationwide consumption centres via a national hydrogen network.
However, due to the energy situation, Germany may need to continue using some of these cavern storage sites for natural gas which will require the construction of new facilities for hydrogen.
Considering that the approval process and conversion period takes at least five years, investment decisions must be made in the middle of this decade which means that incentives and funding measures must be initiated now.
The National Hydrogen Council proposes a package of measures to create a favourable climate for investments in hydrogen storage. These include financial support in the form of CAPEX and OPEX-related funding programmes for the conversion of existing caverns or the construction of new hydrogen storage facilities; accelerated approval procedures; the introduction of a regulatory framework for hydrogen storage projects; regulatory incentives; exemption from any entry/exit fees and surcharges for the connected hydrogen networks when using hydrogen storage facilities and exemption from power grid charges for the green electricity used for storage purposes.
Created by the federal government in 2020, the National Hydrogen Council consists of 26 experts in the areas of generation, research and innovation, decarbonisation of industry, transport and heating, infrastructure, international partnerships and climate and sustainability. Its goal is to advise the State Secretary Committee for Hydrogen with proposals and recommendations for the implementation and further development of the National Hydrogen Strategy.
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