As of: February 22, 2024, 7:14 a.m
By: Bettina Menzel
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Compressor stations for natural gas, which will also be used for hydrogen in the future.
For the time being, the Federal Ministry of Transport is no longer approving funds for hydrogen funding (symbolic image) © Imago/Rupert Oberhäuser
Robert Habeck wants to promote the expansion of hydrogen highways.
But irregularities in Volker Wissing's house are now putting a stop to his plans.
Berlin – Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe and an important factor in the energy transition.
The hydrogen highways for Germany are in the starting blocks, but there are numerous challenges.
Missing storage, import terminals and lines.
Another problem recently emerged, but it is of a structural nature.
Due to possible irregularities in the allocation of funding, the Federal Ministry of Transport has now stopped allocating funds for new hydrogen projects for the time being.
Ministry of Transport stops new subsidies for hydrogen
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) presented his plans for a so-called hydrogen core network last November.
In the future, the total of 9,700 kilometers of lines will extend from north to south and to all federal states.
“We now have to build a network for an energy source that is not yet there,” explained Habeck.
The federal and state governments are supporting the development of hydrogen infrastructure in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, with billions in funding.
The European Union gave approval for this in February.
But new funding is now over.
The Federal Ministry of Transport does not want to approve any more funds for new hydrogen projects for the time being.
This emerges from an internal letter from State Secretary Stefan Schnorr, which was available to the German Press Agency (dpa) on Wednesday (February 21).
In the event of a “material and temporal irrefutability”, a justified exception can only be made after approval by the state secretary level, it was said with regard to new projects.
Further expansion of the hydrogen highway could initially come to a halt.
It is about these possible irregularities in the allocation of funding
The background to the decision was possible irregularities in the Federal Ministry of Transport when awarding funding, which also had personnel consequences.
Last week, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) relieved a department head of the ministry of his duties with immediate effect.
The reason for the dismissal was said to be that the relationship of trust no longer existed.
Der
Spiegel
had previously reported, citing internal documents, that the department head had gone on vacation with a lobbyist friend and subsequently helped him receive millions in funding.
In addition, a head of department was transferred, the dpa reported with reference to Schnorr.
The suspected irregularities affected a hydrogen project from 2021. According to
Spiegel,
a second suspected case also became known.
This is said to have involved government funding totaling 72 million euros.
These payments are presumably related to connections between the dismissed department head and the hydrogen lobby.
Apparently there was also criticism of State Secretary Schnorr at times.
According to the Spiegel
report, he did not always correctly inform
the public about the extent of the scandal.
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Existing projects are not affected by the funding freeze
There is also good news on the subject of hydrogen: funding projects that are already underway must be processed in accordance with existing regulations, according to the dpa.
In short, this means: Existing projects are not affected by the funding stop, for example in Lower Saxony.
Brussels recently approved 1.6 billion in funding for Lower Saxony's hydrogen projects.
Among other things, the country is planning three large electrolyzers that will produce around 40 percent of the electrolysis output approved throughout Germany in the future.
There may also have been a breakthrough in the energy transition: a huge hydrogen reservoir was recently discovered in Albania.
Researchers believe that funding could become economically profitable.
This is an important point for companies in this country – and therefore also for the German economy.
Over 50 economic heavyweights recently called for green electricity and hydrogen at competitive prices from politicians in Germany.