Hydrogen is considered indispensable for the success of the energy transition. For decades now, the lightest element in the universe has been heralded as a saviour in energy matters.
However, the production of green hydrogen is still associated with high losses and the areas of application are still limited. However, certain industries and sectors will probably not be able to decarbonise without hydrogen - in other words, their greenhouse gas emissions cannot be reduced to zero. These include the steel industry, the chemical industry and large parts of aviation and shipping.
At the end of October, the German Federal Network Agency approved the construction of the so-called hydrogen core network, signalling the start of a Germany-wide hydrogen economy.
We talk to Dirk Messner, President of the Federal Environment Agency, Sascha Müller-Kraenner, Federal Managing Director of Deutsche Umwelthilfe and Ove Petersen, founder and CEO of GP Joule, about how this can succeed and in which areas hydrogen will soon be used as an energy source.
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The internationally renowned sustainability researcher Prof. Dr Dirk Messner took over as UBA President on 1 January 2020. He succeeded Maria Krautzberger, who retired at the end of 2019.
Prof Dr Dirk Messner was most recently Director of the Institute for Environment and Human Security at the United Nations University in Bonn and Co-Chair of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU).
Sascha Müller-Kraenner, Federal Managing Director of Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) since 2015, is an experienced biology graduate with over 25 years in environmental policy. His career began in 1991 as an advisor in the Saxon state parliament and continued in leading positions, including at the German Nature Conservation Ring and the Heinrich Böll Foundation in the USA. He was active in ‘The Nature Conservancy’, founded the European Programme and the ‘Ecologic Institute’. Müller-Kraenner sits on many committees and published a book on energy security in 2007.
Ove Petersen (born 1974) is co-founder of GP JOULE and today CEO of the group. As part of the management team, he is responsible for business development, marketing, sales, personnel development and corporate communications. An agricultural engineer with a degree from Weihenstephan University of Applied Sciences, he also runs an agricultural company. Born in Schleswig-Holstein, Ove Petersen is involved in various associations for the development of renewable energies in the federal state, for example as Chairman of the Board of watt_2.0 and as a member of the Board of LEE SH.