Baden-Württemberg is home to a large part of the German automotive industry. However, the new headquarters of German battery research will be located in North Rhine-Westphalia, not in Ulm. Therefore, the HyFab project comes to Baden-Württemberg for this purpose.

Franz Untersteller, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Energy Economy, calls in this context for greater investment in research and development in order to significantly reduce costs, for example for the electrolysers required.

HZwei: Minister Untersteller, are you satisfied with the current interim status of the energy turnaround?

Untersteller: We’ve achieved a lot. 44 percent of green electricity in the first half of 2019 throughout Germany is a success. And I hope that the much-discussed issue of climate protection will continue to boost renewables. I am also very pleased that we no longer have a discussion about costs due to the positive developments in renewables. Raising the expansion corridors in Germany would have hardly any effect on the EEG levy. Other effects, such as the price difference between the low exchange electricity price and the EEG remuneration, increase the levy.

As of 2021, the first EEG plants will drop out of funding after they have received money for twenty years plus the year of installation. What does this mean?

This means that many plant owners will think hard about what to do with the free solar power from their own roof. Whether they want to market the solar power or perhaps purchase a battery storage tank. My own photovoltaic system will soon reach this age, by the way. But thoughts about the future of electricity are only one side of the energy turnaround. It’s far more than just a electricity turnaround.

What has to happen?

…

read more in H2-international October 2019

Interviewer: Niels Hendrik Petersen