Use of the economic and climate-relevant potential of hydrogen in North Rhine-Westphalia and Germany
The study was carried out on behalf of the Ministry of Economics, Innovation, Digitization and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MWIDE). The objective was to investigate the factors that require the use of the economic and climate-relevant potential of hydrogen in North Rhine-Westphalia and Germany.
For the time horizons 2030 and 2050, based on an energy system analysis, the importance of the energy carrier hydrogen in the electricity, heat, transport and industry sectors of a future energy system was examined in more detail, taking grid restrictions into account. The work was supplemented by a discussion of economic opportunities, value creation potential and job effects for the location of North Rhine-Westphalia and Germany. The results provided a well-founded basis for decisions on the medium and long-term strategic orientation of the country with a view to the future role and application scenarios of hydrogen.
The detailed investigation of the energy system of North Rhine-Westphalia and Germany was carried out with the help of integrated modeling by Ludwig-Bölkow-Systemtechnik GmbH (LBST). A total of six scenarios were examined in more detail, which are basically characterized by the greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets of -55% in 2030 and -80% to -95% in 2050. For each of these climate protection goals, a distinction was made between a scenario with a focus on electrification (electricity as the main energy source for predominantly electrical end uses) and a focus on hydrogen (with dedicated H2 pipelines for predominantly H2 end uses) in order to derive the costs and benefits of hydrogen.
