Petra Weiler
Mobility, Energy and Future Technologies
As described in the German government's National Hydrogen Strategy 2020, hydrogen technologies are an essential component of the energy transition. The great advantage is their enormous versatility: hydrogen technologies can thus become one of the central cross-cutting technologies for the decarbonisation of the energy sector. Technologically, hydrogen as a secondary energy carrier can be directly connected to electricity, gas, synthetic fuels, heat and energy-intensive industrial sectors such as steel or chemicals. Hydrogen and products derived from it can be stored; existing infrastructures such as gas grids, geological storage and transport capacities can potentially be used for this purpose. Green hydrogen thus opens up transformation paths to a decarbonised world.
Against the backdrop of energy efficiency and resource conservation, hydrogen technologies are a solution component for minimising CO2 emissions when direct use of renewable energies and renewable electricity is not possible, such as in the use of synthetic fuels for aviation. The potential lies especially in complementing other technologies to compensate for their disadvantages. Hydrogen technologies can act as intermediaries to couple sectors and increase the security of supply of the overall system.
Truly exploiting the potential of hydrogen is a complex task. Great progress can be expected in the future through research and development; from today's perspective, there are no fundamental technical hurdles. Thus, an important next implementation step is to use the technologies that have already been successfully tested on a smaller scale in large-scale projects, in order to demonstrate the advantages that have been recognised so far for broader applications and different user groups (e.g. industry, end users).
In all these areas, we support our clients from the German federal and state governments as a competent partner in the preparation of analyses and recommendations for action as well as in research funding. We organise networks and are involved in important European projects. We also prepare studies in the areas of hydrogen production and mobility. We also advise on innovations and innovation needs for the energy transition, elicit education and training as well as personnel needs, deal with export promotion for renewable energy companies and analyse the conditions of renewable energies for developing and emerging countries. As a project management agency we have gained a wide range of experience and we provide our clients with organisational and technical support, for example in the areas of renewable fuels and off-grid power supply.