Berlin – In view of the current energy crisis, IG Metall is calling on the federal government to significantly increase the capacity targets for the production of green hydrogen. “We have to switch to hydrogen more quickly,” said Jürgen Kerner, executive board member of IG Metall, on the occasion of the union’s second hydrogen conference in Berlin. “Since the Russian war of aggression, the supply of cheap gas that was believed to be secure has suddenly collapsed. We must therefore switch to renewables faster than planned. The federal government must now adapt the national hydrogen strategy in order to ensure energy security for the necessary climate-friendly conversion of our industry.”
By 2030, production plants for green hydrogen (electrolysis capacities) of up to 10 gigawatts are to be built in Germany. This is stipulated in the coalition agreement. IG Metall is now calling for these capacity targets to be increased to 15 gigawatts in the same period. The union is convinced that this is necessary so that the ecological transformation of the industry does not falter.
In order to be able to meet the climate targets, steel, for example – like other products of the basic industry – must in future be produced using the direct reduction process: with hydrogen and temporarily with gas. But this gas bridge is now becoming increasingly shaky, argues IG Metall. The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine has led to a shortage of gas and a corresponding increase in price, so that gas as a transitional technology is effectively non-existent. From this follows: “Hydrogen must be available much earlier in much larger quantities than expected,” said Kerner.
It is not only the basic industry that is affected, emphasized Kerner: “The mobility industry with its commercial vehicles, the railway industry, as well as aviation and shipping depend on hydrogen as a storage medium and drive. Our machine and plant builders can provide the necessary infrastructure, they have the necessary know-how. In this way, we also secure the national value chain and the necessary infrastructure.”
The federal government must now not only increase the capacity targets, but also create the framework so that these targets can be achieved. This includes in particular an accelerated expansion of renewable energies, faster approval processes and a rapid expansion of the infrastructure for the transport of green hydrogen.
IG Metall invited around 100 works council members to its hydrogen conference in Berlin to discuss the effects of the energy crisis on the hydrogen ramp-up together with representatives from politics, associations and science. The conference took place as part of the hydrogen initiative of IG Metall, with which they want to promote the topic in terms of good and sustainable jobs at political and company level.