Expensive source of hope: Ten-point plan aims to boost the hydrogen market

Hydrogen is an important building block in a climate-neutral economy, but is still too expensive and hardly available. Economics Minister Reiche now wants to promote the faltering market with partnerships and less strict requirements.

In view of many uncertainties, Federal Minister of Economics Katherina Reiche wants to accelerate the development of a hydrogen market. The ministry presented a package of ten measures. The ministry in Berlin announced that they should provide new impetus to advance the development of the hydrogen market in a pragmatic and realistic manner.

The use of hydrogen should play a central role alongside green electricity in the climate-neutral economic system of the future. But hydrogen is still too expensive. A paper from the Ministry of Economic Affairs states that the development of the hydrogen market is delayed compared to previous expectations. The production costs for renewable or low-carbon hydrogen are still significantly higher than the prices for fossil alternatives.

One of the measures presented is that the use of hydrogen should be specifically promoted through “differential cost contracts”. With such contracts, the state hedges some of the risk when companies switch to low-emission production processes. The ministry launched the 2027 call for tenders for the funding program.

“Criteria too rigid”

The Ministry of Economic Affairs also wants to create an incentive for the conversion of power plants to hydrogen and work at the EU level to ensure that “criteria that are too rigid” are changed. It is also said that hydrogen must be imported in large quantities and that the ministry is working on strategic partnerships.

In addition, the use of low-carbon hydrogen obtained from natural gas should be made possible. This is called "blue" hydrogen. In the long term, the main aim is to use hydrogen produced in a climate-neutral manner, which is also referred to as “green”.