Energy Transition
Our Energy Future - Hydrogen as the Key to the Energy Transition
The restructuring of our energy system is imperative for climate protection. Alongside renewable energies such as wind and solar power, green hydrogen is considered the key to a successful energy transition. To actively drive the energy transition forward, the Bad Lauchstädt Energy Park is testing the intelligent production of green hydrogen from wind power, as well as its storage, transport, marketing, and use on an industrial scale in Central Germany for the first time. As a real-world laboratory for the energy transition, the Bad Lauchstädt Energy Park contributes proactively to shaping our climate-neutral energy future and to innovation-driven structural change in Central Germany.
Why do we need an energy transition?
With the Paris Agreement, adopted at the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, 195 states committed to the goal of curbing climate change and limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius if possible, but in any case to well below two degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era. Even global warming of 2 degrees Celsius would lead—to name just a few of the effects—to a massive rise in sea levels and increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events such as heat, drought, and flooding as a result of heavy rain.
In Germany, too, the effects of climate change, which are already being felt today, would be significantly intensified. To prevent this, the global economy must be decarbonized quickly and consistently, meaning it must release less harmful carbon dioxide as soon as possible. The Federal Republic of Germany also intends to make its contribution to achieving the Paris Agreement. The long-term goal of the Federal Republic is to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. By 2030, greenhouse gas emissions in Germany are to be reduced by at least 65 percent compared to 1990 levels.
To achieve these goals, we must switch the energy supply for the electricity sector as well as for heating and transport to renewable energies such as hydro, solar, or wind energy as quickly as possible. Due to their harmful impact on the climate, fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas must be completely replaced by renewable energies in the long term.
Green hydrogen is part of the solution
The necessary switch from fossil fuels to renewable energies brings new challenges, particularly regarding security of supply. For instance, wind and solar energy are subject to fluctuations in their availability. When the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow (dark doldrums), neither solar nor wind energy can be generated. Furthermore, the electricity generated from renewable energies cannot easily be stored in large quantities or over the long term; instead, it must be fed directly into the power grid and consumed.
The few short-term storage facilities (mainly batteries) can at most bridge a few minutes. Without storage options, it could therefore happen that no electricity is available when it is needed.
This is where green hydrogen comes into play, as it offers the possibility of storing electricity from renewable energies over the long term, transporting it easily, and making it effectively usable. In this way, renewable energies can be integrated into the energy system and also used in particularly energy-intensive sectors such as the chemical or steel industries. The conversion of renewable energies into green hydrogen, which takes place in so-called power-to-gas plants, is considered a key element of sector coupling—the networking of the individual, previously separate areas of energy supply: electricity, heat, and mobility. Green hydrogen can therefore make a significant contribution to climate protection. As a versatile energy carrier, it offers the possibility of an environmentally friendly design for the particularly climate-intensive industry, transport, and heating sectors, and thus assumes a key function for the successful implementation of the energy transition.
Green hydrogen for Central Germany
Between Teutschental and Bad Lauchstädt, in the Saalekreis district of Saxony-Anhalt, the Bad Lauchstädt Energy Park is located in the heart of the Central German mining district. The energy transition and the associated phase-out of lignite-fired power generation present the region with major challenges. The coal phase-out will result in the loss of a significant portion of value creation and tax revenue from conventional energy supply in the region, and with it, the jobs existing in the industry.
To overcome these challenges, the state government of Saxony-Anhalt developed and presented the Structural Development Program for the Central German Mining District of Saxony-Anhalt (SEP) in 2021. The policy paper outlines how innovation-driven structural change can succeed in the Saxony-Anhalt part of the Central German mining district. A central aspect for maintaining and expanding value creation and employment in the Central German mining district of Saxony-Anhalt is the establishment of a hydrogen economy (see also Hydrogen Strategy). The Bad Lauchstädt Energy Park plays a leading role in this development and also creates new energy-related jobs in the region. As an innovation project, the Bad Lauchstädt Energy Park also serves as a blueprint for developing and implementing similar concepts in other regions affected by transformation processes.
