Reuters: Germany's green hydrogen ramp-up reliant on public money, E.ON says

[OKIsItJustMe]

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/germanys-green-hydrogen-ramp-up-reliant-public-money-eon-says-2024-11-29/

Germany's green hydrogen ramp-up reliant on public money, E.ON says
By Reuters
November 29, 2024 2:34 AM EST

FRANKFURT, Nov 29 (Reuters) - The development of a green hydrogen market in Germany still depends to a large extent on public spending, utility E.ON said on Friday.

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WHY DOES IT MATTER?
Germany wants to build up electrolysis capacity to produce its own green hydrogen from wind and solar power to clean up the carbon footprint of industries such as steelmaking and cement and replace fossil fuels.

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BY THE NUMBERS
Domestic electrolysis capacity has risen around 68% from the spring to 111 megawatts (MW), the six-monthly research showed.

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The government expects hydrogen demand of 95-130 terawatt hours (TWh) per year by 2030, of which 50%-70% will be imported.

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[MIGuy]

1. Good to know

At least some political leaders are trying to get to a cleaner future

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Several are, including US President Joe Biden and his Vice President, Kamala Harris

It’s unfortunate that US citizens chose someone else to run things for a while…

[NNadir]

3. BASF has closed a hydrogen dependent ammonia plant because of high energy costs to make hydrogen.

This would seem to contradict the bullshit hydrogen happy talk that goes on around here, while the fucking planet burns.

BASF closes ammonia production plant in Germany

German chemicals company BASF has announced the closure of one ammonia production plant at its headquarters in Ludwigshafen due to high energy costs.

The site was impacted the most by additional energy costs of €3.2 billion which were recorded by BASF globally, with higher natural gas costs accounting for 69% of the overall increase.

BASF aims to save costs of more than €500 million in non-productive areas by the end of 2024, and lower fixed costs by over €200 million annually by the end of 2026 in Ludwigshafen.

Around 700 positions in production are likely to be impacted at the headquarters. BASF, however, is “confident” it will be able to offer most of the affected employees employment at other plants.

One measure to lower fixed costs at the site is to close its caprolactam plant, which is one of the two ammonia plants and associated fertiliser facilities.

Are we supposed to believe that coal dependent Germany, which features some of the dirtiest electricity in Europe, is now going to switch to the most expensive approach to making hydrogen using electricity?

Let's start with a cartoon, since the hydrogen scam to greenwash fossil fuels is, if anything, cartoonish:



A less cartoonish graphic:



The caption:

Fig. 12. Technologies for producing hydrogen vary in price depending on the energy source

Kaniz Farhana, Abu Shadate Faisal Mahamude, Kumaran Kadirgama, Comparing hydrogen fuel cost of production from various sources - a competitive analysis, Energy Conversion and Management, Volume 302, 2024, 118088.

In an effort to save his dying regime, Olaf Scholz, in a typical "bait and switch" bit of bullshit is planning to build new dangerous natural gas plants with a vague and unsupportable claim that "someday" they'll be able to burn hydrogen.

Germany to hold tenders for new gas power plants “soon”, promises capacity mechanism

...Chancellor Olaf Scholz, economy and climate minister Robert Habeck and finance minister Christian Lindner agreed "that new power plant capacities of up to 4 x 2.5 GW will be put out to tender as H2-ready gas-fired power plants soon as part of the power plant strategy, which are to switch to hydrogen between 2035 and 2040," the economy ministry said in a press release...

"...between 2035 and 2040..."

Really? Does it matter to these shit for brains that the climate disaster is occurring in 2024? Whence is this magic hydrogen going to come? Coal gasification?

Fig. 3. Coal gasification contributes to hydrogen production;

(Ref. above, Energy Conversion and Management, Volume 302, 2024, 118088)

Maybe they can greenwash the coal gasification plants, which were the first industrial scale plants in the world designed to make hydrogen (in Germany in the early 20th century) by putting pictures of wind turbines all over the place to satisfy credulous rubes designed to buy into to the constant rhetoric that flies around in an attempt to rebrand fossil fuels as hydrogen.

Meanwhile, the German economy is collapsing:

More German companies mull relocation due to high energy prices - survey

Germany went from envy of the world to the worst-performing major developed economy. What happened?

...Germany risks “deindustrialization” as high energy costs and government inaction on other chronic problems threaten to send new factories and high-paying jobs elsewhere, said Christian Kullmann, CEO of major German chemical company Evonik Industries AG.

From his 21st-floor office in the west German town of Essen, Kullmann points out the symbols of earlier success across the historic Ruhr Valley industrial region: smokestacks from metal plants, giant heaps of waste from now-shuttered coal mines, a massive BP oil refinery and Evonik’s sprawling chemical production facility...

...Other dawning realizations: The money that the government readily had on hand came in part because of delays in investing in roads, the rail network and high-speed internet in rural areas. A 2011 decision to shut down Germany’s remaining nuclear power plants has been questioned amid worries about electricity prices and shortages. Companies face a severe shortage of skilled labor, with job openings hitting a record of just under 2 million...

"What happened?" is simply answered. Germany, whose former Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder openly works for Vladimir Putin, funded Putin's war machine.

They are in the process of surrendering to Putin:

Germany's Scholz discusses Ukraine with Russia's Putin in first such call in 2 years

So much bullshit, so much carbon dioxide, so little decency, so little of a sense of reality. It's disgusting.