Towards a sustainable hydrogen economy

Dialogue creates knowledge and legitimacy: over 300 stakeholders come together at conference

Over three golden autumn days, the enthusiasm for being able to meet in person again was palpable. The conference participants were full of energy and discussed important issues concerning a future hydrogen economy.

The conference was co-organised by the German Hydrogen Research Network, which held its inaugural physical meeting during the first part of the conference. The joint part at the halfway point of the conference culminated in a high-level panel on 'Germany's hydrogen economy - insights into political and industrial challenges' with, among others, Parliamentary State Secretary Stefan Wenzel (BMWK) and Innovation Commissioner for Green Hydrogen Till Mansmann (BMBF).

Not only during the panel but throughout the conference it became clear that the participants agreed on a key issue: hydrogen technologies are ready for deployment. Despite this, research must still closely accompany the transformation towards a hydrogen economy.

World Cafés, poster exhibition and guest lectures provide important insights

At the beginning of the project, we used a representative survey to identify four issues that are particularly controversial in the hydrogen community. Discussion papers were written about these four controversies, each of which was discussed in depth and elaborated upon in virtual workshops with experts from various stakeholder groups. At the Hydrogen Dialogue conference, the task was then for a wider circle of stakeholders to discuss the revised discussion papers in World Cafés. The following topics were in focus:

• Criteria for hydrogen imports,
• Prioritisation of hydrogen applications,
• Political levers for business models based on domestic production,
• Public perception of hydrogen and expectation management.

The insights from these World Cafés are now being incorporated into our central project product, the H2-Compass. The H2-Compass will be a transparent, fact- and data-based compilation of existing results from studies and projects for policymakers. We have been validating the plausibility of studies and verifying the results via further expert discussions and roundtables. This allows us to usher in clarity, understandability, ways forward and especially through our broad, in-depth stakeholder dialogue – legitimacy. The options for action and possible implementation steps we describe can be used by the German government as the basis for a hydrogen roadmap.

In addition to the World Cafés, we presented R&D needs in a poster exhibition and discussed these with the participants. We also conveyed selected interim results of our meta-analysis in a lecture. In designing the conference, we were keen to include external expertise on key issues. For this reason, we rounded off the program with guest lectures on hydrogen infrastructure and the need for skilled workers. The presentation slides are available below.

Another highlight was a high-level panel discussion on the upcoming course to be set at EU level. The importance of looking to Brussels is shown by the results of a live poll among conference participants during the panel discussion: When asked where the relevant political decisions for the hydrogen ramp-up in Germany are made - more in Berlin or more in Brussels - 61 percent of the participants voted for Brussels.

For more information on the event programme, please follow this link:

Conference Programme

Click below for photo impressions from the conference:

PHOTO GALLERY

Take a look at the video recording of the panel on the topic of 'Germany's hydrogen economy - insights into political and industrial challenges' with the Parliamentary State Secretary Stefan Wenzel (BMWK), the Innovation Commissioner for Green Hydrogen Till Mansmann (BMBF) and more (on 11 October 2022, in German).

RECORDING OF "GERMANY'S HYDROGEN ECONOMY - INSIGHTS INTO POLITICAL AND INDUSTRIAL CHALLENGES" (in German)

Three presentations from the H2-Compass stakeholder dialogue on hydrogen infrastructures and skilled labour needs:

INFRASTRUCTURE PRESENTATION BY Prof. Dr. Tetyana Morozyuk

INFRASTRUCTURE PRESENTATION BY Dr.-Ing. Enis Askar: challenges for hydrogen technologies

LECTURE ON THE NEED FOR SKILLED WORKERS BY Dr. Marc Bovenschulte: HYDROGEN AS A PROFESSION

Slides presented during the meeting of the Hydrogen Research Network:

TO THE WEBSITE OF THE HYDROGEN RESEARCH NETWORK