Day 1 dedicated to research and development

How can international partnerships in the field of green hydrogen be established? These and many other questions were the focus of the international conference "Green Hydrogen for a Sustainable European Future" which was held on 16 and 17 May 2022, and which brought together scientists, industry leaders and representatives from politics and civil society from Europe and around the world in Berlin and also online.

The organiser was the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, in close cooperation with the EU Member States in the European Research Area (ERA).

Both event days had their own thematic focus. Day one was all about research and development as a key factor for a sustainable European economy in a fully interconnected world.

In her opening speech, Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger spoke about how a sustainable hydrogen economy can work in Europe and named some important goals, including the production of green hydrogen at sea, the adaptation of the infrastructure for hydrogen transport, the training of skilled workers to implement the energy transition, as well as the production of the necessary technology – cost-effectively and in series.

In the individual networking sessions, important sub-aspects of this thematic block were discussed and fleshed out by the participants from the EU member states.

The be-all and end-all – qualified professionals

"Capacity Development and Skills" was about people and the professional skills they will need to have to build a green hydrogen economy. Two key elements are of great importance here, according to the participants: firstly, the use of existing skills; and, secondly, the training of young people. The potential is enormous: It is estimated that 500,000 jobs are required in the sector. Therefore, it is important to analyse the job profiles needed to transform the energy industry and to tailor capacities to these requirements. In concrete terms, this means, for example, identifying and matching existing and future qualifications of managers, skilled workers, students and trainees, as well as qualifying, retraining and upgrading sufficient skilled workers, and adapting curricula and courses of study.

Strong together: Team Europe

The networking session on the topic of "Working Together to Build International Supply Chains" focused on the production, storage, transport and use of hydrogen – and the technologies to be developed for this. There was a consensus that Europe can master the challenges lying ahead only on a collective basis in order to make green hydrogen an option for a sustainable energy supply in the future. To meet the high demand, Europe is also dependent on the import of green hydrogen. Strong and reliable partnerships outside Europe are therefore important, for example, with Namibia, Japan, Canada and Australia. In general, it is necessary to increase the capacities for the production of green hydrogen based on renewable energies both in the member states and worldwide, to transport it cost-efficiently by pipeline or by ship, to develop storage possibilities for large quantities, and also to think about the efficient use of energy, for example, in the form of sustainable buildings and the industrial production of green steel or green ammonia.

Money well invested: funding research

The third and final networking session of the first day of the event focused on government funding for green hydrogen research and the interplay between European and national research and innovation ecosystems. This showed that there are already numerous sources of funding for hydrogen research, but that the coordination and transparency of these funding programmes still need to be strengthened. For example, the coordination of calls for proposals at regional, national and European level would have to be improved and funding made clearer and easier to access, for example, by means of a common database. To this end, it would be advisable to build up new financing instruments, which could start bilaterally with two or three countries and then gradually be extended to the European level.

Germany and Austria are already working on various funding measures at national level. The bilateral and multilateral activities are fully in line with the "Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA)", and the result of the research and innovation initiative "Green Hydrogen Agenda Process" within the European Research Area (ERA).

For example, a measure is to be introduced by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) on the topic of "capacity development and skills". A multilateral funding call is also planned within the EUREKA research initiative. In addition, further cooperative measures are currently being discussed at regional level.

More on the results of the second day of the event can be found here.