Germany and China partner to develop hydrogen sectors

Green hydrogen is considered the ultimate non-polluting fuel and energy-storage medium for the world's essential energy transition.

That's why it is becoming the central pillar in achieving Germany's energy transition, with the country investing some $10 billion towards the goal of 10 GW of electrolysis generation capacity by 2030.

Production partnership with China

But to achieve this, Germany needs to substantially scale up its production and this is something with which China, which accounts for around one-third of global hydrogen generation, could help as a strategic partner.

"We need it (hydrogen) in several industries," Florian Becker tells CGTN. He's a fuel cell engineer and is working with a team at the center for applied aviation research in Hamburg to develop fuel cell technology for aeronautical applications, specifically for commercial aircrafts.

"The bigger you get the more advantages of hydrogen will come. What we can see in China, they have huge amounts of production - and this scaling-up progress we need in Germany. I think this is something we need to learn from them."

"Somewhere all the production of all the components must be done," says senior fuel cell expert, Sebastian Altmann. "There is a lot of potential for collaboration."

Demand to triple

This is all made more pressing as the demand for hydrogen in Germany is expected to be triple the amount aimed for by the government by the end of the decade.

Therefore, Germany is in desperate need of the skilled professionals to develop the country's burgeoning hydrogen sector.

To work towards this, Heinze Akademie in Hamburg has been one of the first vocational training institutes in the country to offer professional training in hydrogen and fuel cell technology.

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For the past 10 years the Akademie has been cooperating with China in a number of different educational areas and is now discussing the sharing of knowledge with Chinese industrial centers and professionals who work in the area of renewable energies, especially hydrogen.

Jens Heinze is the owner and manager of Heinze Akademie. In his opinion, "if you want to change a compete industry you have to think big and this is something we possibly can learn from the Chinese."

Thousands of jobs

The European Commission estimates that the green hydrogen economy could create as many as 5.4 million jobs across the entire hydrogen supply chain in the EU by 2050. 

As Germany pursues an ambitious hydrogen strategy aimed at establishing itself as a major technology provider and importer of green hydrogen, it's fair to say many of those jobs will be in the country.

"If we train Chinese people and Chinese people train us," concludes Heinze, "and we interchange skilled workers - this is the way to help us reach our common goal, to decarbonize globally."

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