Hydrogen – the versatile energy carrier for various applications

Hydrogen makes a valuable contribution towards reducing CO2 emissions from traffic. Fuel cell vehicles are particularly suited for travelling long distances or transporting large loads. Hydrogen is therefore the perfect complement to battery-powered electric mobility.

Hydrogen is already used in certain industrial processes today. Replacing natural gas with hydrogen could leverage great new potential for emission reduction. What’s important is that mainly green hydrogen is used and that it replaces blue hydrogen in the long term.

In the mid- and long-term, hydrogen will also be used to heat buildings. This will particularly be the case where heating systems are not converted to electricity, such as with old existing buildings.

District and local heating grids will also become more environmentally friendly if heating generation plants start using increasing amounts of hydrogen. For this purpose, plants need to be retrofitted with additional technology so that they are able to handle increasing amounts of hydrogen.

Hydrogen can also be used to re-generate electricity. This makes sense wherever large amounts of electricity generated from renewable energies must be stored for longer periods of time: Hydrogen is produced with the help of electricity and is stored in storage caverns until it flows back into the electricity generation system. This is done to bridge extended periods of “dark doldrums” during which neither wind nor photovoltaic systems can generate an adequate amount of electricity.

Though this scenario is only relevant in the long term, it should nevertheless be considered from the very beginning, both from the legal perspective and with regard to the planning of power plants and infrastructure.