Thuringia's hydrogen strategy builds on expert report from the Chair of Energy Systems
The Thuringian state government recently adopted the Thuringian Hydrogen Strategy, which was developed under the leadership of the Thuringian Ministry of the Environment. The strategy is based in large part on the expert report prepared by the Energy Systems team in 2019. The state strategy is intended to advance the green hydrogen economy in Thuringia.
The Energy Systems group at the Bauhaus-University Weimar reviewed hydrogen activities in Thuringia and pointed out options for supporting the strategic development of hydrogen systems and infrastructures in the state on the request of the Thuringian Energy and GreenTech Agency (ThEGA). The now published Thuringian Hydrogen Strategy builds on the analysis of the report "Hydrogen in Thuringia - Initial Situation, Potentials and Options for Action" from 2019 and specifies the framework conditions for achieving Thuringia's climate protection goals with green hydrogen. The energy vector is set to become a central component of the state's decarbonisation strategy.
The Chair of Energy Systems has been working for some time on the question of how hydrogen can be produced with renewable energies in a greenhouse gas-neutral way and how it can be used to decarbonise industry and services of general interest. It began in 2015 with the HYPOS research project localhy. Within the project a hydrogen electrolysis plant and operating filling station was built for demonstration purposes at the Sonneberg-Heubisch sewage treatment plant. The Chair of Energy Systems is also one of the pioneers and central players in the regional hydrogen alliance "h2-well Hydrogen Source and Value Creation Region Main-Elbe-LINK", which was launched in 2018 and is also named as a driving force in Thuringia's Hydrogen Strategy.
The research project h2-well, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the WIR! programme, aims at establishing a decentralised, green hydrogen economy in Thuringia and Central Germany. Demonstration projects initiated by the alliance in Apolda and Sonneberg are testing compact H2 supply systems for the local production and use of green hydrogen in heat supply and transport.