Germany gives three regions EUR 45m for hydrogen mobility projects

Germany's Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) will provide up to EUR 45 million (USD 49.41m) in total to three regions in the country to support the implementation of regionally integrated hydrogen concepts in the transport sector.

The financing is extended under the HyPerformer scheme as part of the HyLand competition to the regions of Ruegen-Stralsund in the north, Erfurt in Thuringia and Rhine-Ruhr, the ministry said last week.

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Each of the three regions will receive up to EUR 15 million in the form of investment grants for the procurement of hydrogen applications in the transport sector. The new HyPerformer projects are worth a total of EUR 131 million.

The Th2Eco project in Erfurt envisages the use of green hydrogen from locally generated green electricity from 2025 on. The hydrogen will be transported via a 42-km pipeline and stored in a reservoir. Apart from industry and heating applications, the hydrogen will be used also as a fuel in the local rail transport and in the municipal network.

The HyPerformer Rhine-Ruhr initiative combines projects designed to network hydrogen refuelling stations to create the necessary infrastructure for the decarbonisation of heavy goods and bus transport. Electrolysers and refuelling stations are planned in Dusseldorf, Wuppertal, Essen, Gelsenkirchen and Dorsten at important junctions.

In the Ruegen-Stralsund region, the partners in the initiative include Ruhr Stralsund public utility company, logistics companies, and the Stralsund University of Applied Sciences. The goal is to produce hydrogen onsite and then use it for buses in public transport, heavy goods transport trucks, and ships servicing offshore wind farms. The construction of a hydrogen filling station and a heat supply for a residential area in Stralsund are also part of the projects.

Including the three new regions, BMDV now supports 53 hydrogen regions as part of HyLand. The competition was launched by BMDV in 2019 to encourage stakeholders in all regions of Germany to initiate (HyStarter), plan (HyExperts) and implement (HyPerformer) concepts for the application of hydrogen and fuel cell technology in transport. The aim is the regional development of a hydrogen economy and regional application clusters.

Transport minister Volker Wissing commented that HyPerformer regions are lighthouse projects on a national and international scale. The first networks, infrastructures and projects have already been established in these regions and the next step is the rollout of the technology and its application, Wissing said. The funding provided under the HyPerformer scheme aims to actively promote this process, he added.

(EUR 1 = USD 1.098)