Rainer Seele: Where we in Europe will get the hydrogen from?

  "Europe rightly relies on renewable energies such as hydrogen. But I warn against narrow-minded thinking that only green hydrogen from renewable energies is environmentally friendly. If we want to continue to achieve a safe and sustainable energy supply, we are on hydrogen from natural gas with underground storage CO2 dependent. 

Unfortunately, the EU sets itself artificial limits by banning the underground storage of carbon dioxide in almost all member states - including Germany and Austria. As the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol said: "The simple-minded quantity can be captured by the dazzling without much thought." The CO2 storage can reduce our emissions quickly and comparatively inexpensively by storing them in underground storage facilities. We should take advantage of this opportunity. Europe cannot afford an ideological rejection of hydrogen from fossil sources if we do not endanger the upswing and want to achieve our climate policy goals. I am therefore proposing a hydrogen alliance with Russia. We have the know-how and Russia has the gas storage facilities. This division of labor has already proven to be a successful concept in the past. The Russian Chamber of Commerce Abroad (AHK) is ready to make a contribution. We have already done preliminary work. An AHK initiative group brings German and Russian companies together in the search for hydrogen pilot projects. If we succeed in realizing such projects in a timely manner, we have the opportunity to continue the strategic energy partnership between our two countries for decades. 

Something is also moving politically - in April of this year, a German-Russian working group for sustainable energies was set up through a joint declaration of intent between the German Federal Ministry of Economics and the Russian Ministry of Energy. That is a step in the right direction. 

 The focus on green hydrogen alone, however desirable that may be, will not be feasible in the medium term. We need hydrogen from raw materials of every color. And so I welcome the statement by Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier at the German-Russian raw materials conference to use blue hydrogen as a bridging technology for a transition period. We need a raw materials partnership between the EU and Russia so that the industry-driven growth is sustainable. 

Let's not fool ourselves: The electricity from renewable energy will not be enough to produce enough green hydrogen for industry in the EU at competitive prices in the foreseeable future. That is why there is no getting around an alliance with gas countries like Russia, because the Russian storage facilities are in close proximity to the European sales markets. We should use this great advantage for our further economic upswing."

Rainer Seele is President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce Abroad (AHK) and head of OMV AG. [1]

1. "OMV is an Austrian multinational integrated oil, gas and petrochemical company which is headquartered in Vienna, Austria. The company is listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, OMV Group was ranked as the 441st -largest public company in the world."

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