A look into the future: Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD, right) had the Höchst hydrogen plans explained to him by Joachim Krysing, head of the industrial park.
Image: dpa
Everyone agrees on one thing: hydrogen is indispensable for the energy supply of Hesse in the medium term. But the answers to central questions are still very different – depending on who you ask.
It’s possible, Chancellor Olaf Scholz may have thought when he visited the hydrogen center in Frankfurt’s Höchst Industrial Park in August. Pipelines, electrolyser, compressor stations, filling stations for cars, buses and trains: everything is already there. This is how it can work.
Inga Janovic
Editor in the regional section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and responsible editor of the business magazine Metropol.
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In fact, what the parking operator Infraserv has built on a small scale in western Frankfurt is a foretaste of the future. Because for the time when Germany wants to cover its energy needs purely with the power of the sun, wind, water and geothermal energy, hydrogen is also an important element in the plans. No energy transition without hydrogen, that much seems clear. Beyond this premise, however, it quickly becomes confusing: is the gas, which is symbolized by a simple H at the top of the periodic table of the elements, part of the solution or even the key technology in the switch from fossil to renewable energy sources? And does it make electricity and heat much more expensive or the energy transition cheaper overall? It depends when you ask.