For instance Aivars Starikovs, board chairman of the Latvian Hydrogen Association, had explained prior to the event: “Looking ahead, all three Baltic states are in a position to be key suppliers of green hydrogen for EU industry. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania can, together, deliver 831 terawatt-hours of renewable power for the production of green hydrogen – that’s equivalent to at least 16 million metric tons a year.” However, he continued, this capacity can only be realized through close cooperation at a political and industrial level. Starikovs also underlined the significance of the city of Hamburg for the hydrogen economy: “The H2Expo & Conference is able to perform the important task of building bridges between Northern and Eastern Europe so that the economic and ecological challenges can be tackled jointly from a stronger position.”

National and international declarations

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The wind sector used WindEnergy as a platform to make targeted demands aimed at politicians. In the Hamburg Declaration, leading associations from the wind industry (Global Wind Energy Councils, WindEurope, WindEnergie, VDMA Power Systems, Renewable Hydrogen Coalition) stated their position on the current energy and climate crisis and articulated their needs which, in their view, require energy policy decisions to be taken as a matter of urgency.

In addition, the North German Hydrogen Network signed an agreement on interregional collaboration to support the market ramp-up of the hydrogen industry and the implementation of northern Germany’s hydrogen strategy. Organizations involved in this were the Renewable Energy Hamburg cluster agency (EEHH), the Schleswig-Holstein Renewable Energy Network Agency (EE.SH) and the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern hydrogen energy cluster (WECMV) as well as the WindEnergy Network (WEN), the WAB business network and the Cuxhaven economic development agency (AfW).

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What’s more, Hamburg and the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador signed a declaration of intent that aims to foster cooperation at an international level. Both parties expressed their willingness “to share their experience and knowledge gained and to channel their expertise and strengths in a planned and coordinated way so as to build and develop a global, self-sustaining hydrogen economy.” Speaking to H2-international, Tom Rose, mayor of Stephenville in Newfoundland, appeared delighted and “extremely proud” that the agreement was ready to be signed in Hamburg after a preparatory period of just seven months.

H₂Expo

The very first H₂Expo was held back in 2001 in Hamburg (see fig. 2) under the direction of Ines Freesen and succeeded in filling an entire exhibition hall. However, the delayed market entry of some products meant that the event then switched to the congress center before disappearing completely. In future the H₂Expo & Conference will again take place on an annual basis, running in parallel with WindEnergy every two years.

Author: Sven Geitmann