Germany is on an all-out campaign to decarbonise its energy system, with plans to slice carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions by 80% to 90% by 2050.

It has identified hydrogen as an essential part of decarbonising its energy system.

“Hydrogen has big potential to store electricity. It can be used as a transport fuel. It can be used to repower. It can produce heat and can be used in industry. We definitely need this to help decarbonise our energy sector,” said National Organisation for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology international cooperation head Dr Hanno Butsch.

“CO2 reduction targets demand massive changes in the energy system, especially in the transport sector, which still relies on fossil fuels for around 98% of its needs.”

Butsch told a joint South African/German workshop at the South African Renewable Energy Technology Centre, in Cape Town, that introducing hydrogen-powered cars would also help to improve the air quality in metropolitan areas. He said particulate emission levels in German metropolitan areas were well above the limit defined in certain regulations.

The German government needs to adhere to some important European regulations on ambient air quality, while regulations set emissions performance standards for new passenger cars.

Germany’s Electric Mobility Law, published in September 2014, enables municipalities to support e-mobility by giving some drivers special privileges, such as the use of bus lanes and certain parking spaces.

“It opens up a toolbox for cities to promote the [use of] electric vehicles,” said Butsch.

Apart from developing more hydrogen buses and hydrogen refuelling stations, Germany is also piloting projects on fuel cell trains in four states in Germany.

“The transport sector is the most dependent on fossil fuels of all the energy sources. Electric mobility will be a key driver to defossilise this sector,” said Butsch.

Meanwhile, there have also been some fascinating developments in solar energy, with an increase in agrophotovoltaic plants, where photovoltaic (PV) solar systems are raised on poles above agricultural land.

“Plants or crops flourish under the shade of the PV panels. You can include waterlines for artificial watering. “You can plant whatever you want underneath. You can even have sheep and cows grazing under the panels,” explained Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems hydrogen technologies head Dr Christopher Hebling.

Meanwhile, Germany still has eight operating nuclear power plants, but they will be switched off within the next six years.

German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy director-general Thorsten Herdan said this was a relief.

He also expressed concern about South Africa’s heavy focus on nuclear in its Integrated Resource Plan.

“Renewables and nuclear don’t fit together. You have the volatility of renewables and the base of nuclear and they are not flexible enough,” he told Engineering News.

“By continuing with nonflexible nuclear power plants, you will reduce the number of renewables you can feed into the system. This is what Eskom is advocating. They don’t see any place for renewables as they have baseload . . . Each country needs to decide on its own fuel mix. But renewables and nuclear . . . they don’t fit together.”

He said it was also extremely expensive, particularly the massive cost of disposing of nuclear waste, which Germany now faces.

Herdan said his government’s collaboration with South Africa was still excellent and he welcomed the joint government initiatives on alternative energy, particularly its recent work on cleaner bus technologies.

In 2015, the Tshwane, Johannesburg and Cape Town metros, together with 23 other cities across the globe, signed the C40 Clean Bus Declaration, in which they committed to reducing emissions from vehicles by adopting clean bus technologies.