Germany will rule out direct financial support for low-carbon hydrogen production from natural gas and waste, limiting subsidies for these technologies to the demand side, an updated draft of its revised national hydrogen strategy suggests.
“Direct financial support for hydrogen production is limited to production of green hydrogen,” the government said in the draft seen by Argus. On the demand side, the government wants to support the “use of low-carbon blue, turquoise and orange hydrogen to a limited degree”, with strict requirements for emissions reductions in mind, it said.
Blue hydrogen refers to production using natural gas with carbon capture and storage, while the turquoise pathway refers to methane pyrolysis and orange means production from waste.
A previous draft of the strategy from earlier this year had left open the possibility of support for blue hydrogen production, stating that “we will support and import blue hydrogen”. The previous draft had made no mention of hydrogen from methane pyrolysis and waste.
The revised strategy suggests that Germany does not want to encourage domestic hydrogen production via these pathways, but that imports of such hydrogen would be welcomed to help meet demand for lower-carbon supply. Berlin has long held a preference for hydrogen from renewable power, but has eased its stance towards blue hydrogen recently. The government now regards it as a potentially key component of the transition towards more hydrogen use — given that only limited renewable hydrogen is expected to be available in the coming years — and has actively worked towards facilitating imports, such as from Norway.
Source : Argus