00:01Germany's investment in renewables is starting to bear fruit.
00:05Hydrogen, or H2O, is capable of virtually anything in the fight against climate crisis, the German government once said.
00:13Now, across the country, hydrogen-related projects are taking off.
00:17Here in the state of Thuringia in eastern Germany,
00:20a pilot plant that will produce green hydrogen using SOEC electrolyzer technology has opened its doors.
00:27The goal is to start small, but produce up to 300 GW of hydrogen.
00:32The SOEC technology, and I sometimes call it the Swiss Army knife of electrolysis, can do so many different things.
00:40So it can produce green hydrogen and such address, in particular those industries that have a requirement for that,
00:48like steel production, like ammonia production.
00:52The technology being developed here isn't just for producing climate-friendly hydrogen.
00:57It's also aimed at facilitating energy storage and producing climate-friendly steel.
01:02For the developers of this technology, the Fraunhofer IKTS Institute,
01:06the important thing is this stacking technology that they spent almost three decades refining.
01:11For them, this is the game changer.
01:14Due to the high temperature, which is a big advantage, we can generate green hydrogen with much higher efficiency.
01:21So roughly 30% less power for the same amount of hydrogen compared to other technologies.
01:27This is one advantage.
01:28The other advantage is it cannot only produce green hydrogen out of water.
01:33It also can use CO2 out of the environment and you reduce this to CO to make so-called syngas.
01:43It's a combination of green hydrogen, H2 and CO.
01:46And from this we can make all kinds of chemical products, also e-fuels like kerosene for flying,
01:53diesel for driving cars and things of this nature.
01:56Could this technology bring Germany's climate goals within reach?
02:00Most European countries have goals to reduce their carbon emissions drastically by 2030.
02:06That means five years more to implement green policies.
02:09Both the EU and Germany have been strong advocates for hydrogen development,
02:14even though mass commercialization is still years away.
02:17A few hours away from this pilot plant in western Germany,
02:20the region's biggest H2 filling station for cars is ready for clients.
02:25We need to ramp up production.
02:30Europe needs climate neutrality in the transport sector too.
02:34And hydrogen filling stations that can refuel buses, garbage trucks and all sorts of trucks
02:41are making a very important contribution to this.
02:44It's worth noting, though, that only a tiny fraction of cars in Germany
02:49and only two available models operate on this kind of fuel.
02:53But Germany is willing to play the long game with hydrogen to make its energy mix greener and cleaner.
02:58and cleaner.
02:59and cleaner.
03:00and cleaner.
03:01and cleaner.
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