The energy source of the future is hydrogen. It can be produced from renewables and used as a raw material or an energy source in multiple industries. The biggest challenge industrial companies face with hydrogen is also key to implementing energy systems integration in general.
Reducing environmental pollution is becoming ever more important. This is especially true now, seeing how pollution has worsened the impact of the recent Covid-19 virus outbreak. As a result, the search for alternative fuels is no longer just a building block for long-term climate action but vital to public health today.
Apex Energy Teterow CEO Mathias Hehmann has one vision: to turn his Rostock-based business into a one-stop hydrogen contractor. He intends Apex Energy to design, plan and install devices producing and storing hydrogen as well as run and maintain them over their lifetime.
Building platforms or artificial islands to produce hydrogen near wind farms is not a new idea. In the meantime, however, a growing number of organizations have announced that they intend to turn this vision into action.
Known in English as the German Energy Agency, dena calls itself a “center of expertise for energy efficiency, renewable energy sources and smart energy systems“ and an “agency for implementing the transformation of the energy market.“
On January 17, in Berlin, the German Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association, also known as DWV, and the German Association of the Gas and Water Industries, or DVGW, signed an agreement to step up their efforts to help set up a power-to-gas market. At the signing ceremony, which was attended by Thomas Bareiß, who has a leading role in the economy ministry, both organizations said they aimed to “gradually turn today’s fossil fuel economy into a climate-friendly energy system” by replacing natural with synthetic gas one step at a time.
Competition among trade show organizers in Germany is now ramping up in the energy storage as well as the electric transportation arena. More and more event providers want to establish hubs of emerging technologies and draw industry-wide interest to their locations. The most recent example of this type of effort is
On Aug. 1, 2017, Peter Röttgen became the new CEO of Germany’s Federal Renewable Energy Federation, or BEE for short. He replaced Harald Uphoff, who served as interim CEO after Hermann Falk left BEE in 2016. Röttgen had previously served as deputy head at the State Office of Mining, Energy and Geology in the German state of Lower Saxony and later as manager of the Energy Storage Innovation Center at E.ON until the company decided to split operations.
Intersolar Europe is inching closer to becoming an energy storage platform. It was the fourth time that Munich’s trade show on solar energy ran in parallel to the ees Europe – with 254 exhibitors on 17,500 m2 Europe’s most popular trade fair about batteries and energy storage, according to its organizers. Starting next year, the show will have two new pillars, Power2Drive for electric transportation and charging infrastructures and EM Power for smart energy production.
Markus Forstmeier, VP business development at Bavarian-based Electrochaea, has joined the board of the German Energy Storage Association, or BVES for short. During the general meeting in March 2017, Forstmeier was elected to the association’s executive board.