Ulm, © Daimler

Since this summer, Germany has been able to offer eco-conscious drivers two more opportunities to fill up their hydrogen tanks. The first new station went online in Wuppertal on June 19 and is viewed as the prototype for the planned nationwide H₂ infrastructure, according to the Clean Energy Partnership. The project supported by EUR 670,000 consisted of the addition of a hydrogen fuel pump to the Shell gas station on Schmiedestrasse near the interchange Wuppertal-Nord. Stijn van Els, chair of the German Shell companies, said “that this alternative engine fuel will play an increasingly stronger role in markets such as Germany, the Benelux countries, the UK and the US from the 2020s on.”

The second filling station went online on July 15 on the premises of the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) on Helmholtzstrasse in Ulm. The station marks an important step in bridging the gap in the east-west link between Munich and Stuttgart/Karlsruhe to the south of the city. The two installations pushed the official number of hydrogen filling stations in operation in Germany by early September 2016 to a total of 17, while another 17 were still under construction and an additional 19 were in planning. Unofficially, however, three locations were closed for maintenance or defects and two did not transmit information about their operational status. But on Sept. 23, another station opened in Metzingen, south of Stuttgart.