H2FEE

Alongside the expansion of renewable energies, the development of the hydrogen economy is a key step on the road to climate neutrality in Germany in 2045. However, as the hydrogen strategies and infrastructure of the federal and state governments are primarily geared towards large and central consumers, concrete business models and their implementation in rural areas and in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are currently difficult.

In order to identify and evaluate potential areas for hydrogen production and use, the _H2-FEE project is currently developing a web-based geoinformation system that provides a planning basis for the potential use of green hydrogen in SMEs and rural regions. The project is funded by the state of Lower Saxony.

Currently, the development of the hydrogen economy is focusing in particular on large consumption centers such as the chemical and steel industries. As these are particularly energy-intensive, are difficult or impossible to electrify and emit large amounts of_CO2, this focus initially makes sense - but at the same time, opportunities must also be created in rural areas and in small and medium-sized enterprises to enable the transformation using green hydrogen. "Hydrogen is a highly sought-after but very expensive product. In smaller applications, such as small and medium-sized enterprises and rural areas, we therefore need to take a closer look. Can hydrogen and its derivatives also be used here in a_CO2-saving and cost-effective way? This is where our idea for the _H2-FEE project came from," says Prof. Dr. Carsten Fichter from project partner Energiesynergie.

Extensive site planning is required before SMEs and municipalities decide to produce and use hydrogen. This is because precise planning always depends on spatial aspects such as the local supply of renewables or _H2 requirements. In order to provide planners with a suitable tool, the _H2-FEE project is therefore combining various data in a new Open WebGIS - be it renewable energy and biogas plants, existing infrastructure, land requirements for food production and nature conservation or even land use costs and the regional energy system environment.

By collecting the various data, specific, promising business models for hydrogen and PtG projects and the resulting marketing opportunities can be developed on a location-specific basis in the future - especially for SMEs and municipalities in rural areas. Raphael Niepelt from the Institute of Solid State Physics at Leibniz Universität Hannover comments: "With our project, we want to support municipalities and companies in rural areas away from the major transport corridors for green hydrogen. Using a holistic approach, we are identifying potential for the decentralized production of flexible renewable energy sources so that these stakeholders can also benefit from the energy transition."

The Web Geoinformation System (WebGIS) will be used in particular to identify and evaluate potential areas that can be used for the conversion of biomass production to green energy sources such as hydrogen and other derivatives. Current biogas plant sites are well suited for the future production of flexible green energy sources. According to the project partners, only 6 square kilometers of land are required for 1 TWh/a of hydrogen from a solar-wind hybrid power plant, whereas 170 square kilometers are required for 1 TWh/a of biogas from silage maize, so the conversion of biogas plants makes perfect sense in terms of land consumption.

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