The National Hydrogen Council and the European Commission's Hydrogen Strategy
With the adoption of the National Hydrogen Strategy, Germany has done the groundwork to assume a leading international role in hydrogen technology and secure its long-term position. The implementation and further development of the hydrogen strategy are being overseen and steered by the National Hydrogen Council. This is made up of 26 high-ranking experts from the fields of science, business and society. The members were appointed by the Federal Cabinet in June 2020 and between them have expertise in the areas of hydrogen generation, research and innovation, the decarbonisation of industry, transport, buildings and heating, infrastructure, international partnerships, and climate and sustainability. Karsten Lemmer, DLR Executive Board Member for Energy and Transport, is a member of the National Hydrogen Council.
Complementing the German National Strategy, the European Commission published its hydrogen strategy for the coming decades. This forms an essential pillar of the Green Deal, which aims to ensure that Europe is climate-neutral by 2050. The Commission also launched the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance to implement this strategy. This brings together industry leaders, civil society, national and regional ministers, and the European Investment Bank. Having been involved in hydrogen research at a European level, including as part of the Hydrogen Europe research association and the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, DLR welcomes this ambition and is at the same time committed to securing a more prominent role for science – as in the case with the National Hydrogen Council – at a European level by having a permanent representative within the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance. The longstanding collaboration between industry and research as part of the current Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking shows that industry needs support from science to make best use of existing expertise and discover new avenues for research, while science needs input from industrial partners if it is to address their requirements.