H2 funding: Germany approves millions in grants for ITZ Chemnitz and ITZ Nord

With the decentralised hydrogen innovation and technology centres (‘ITZ-H2’ for short), the German Ministry of Transport is implementing a measure of the National Hydrogen Strategy of June 2020. Chemnitz, Duisburg, Pfeffenhausen and the aforementioned network of four cities in northern Germany were chosen as the locations for the centres in 2021. The BMDV is now providing a substantial amount of funding for two of these centres: the ITZ Chemnitz will receive around 84 million euros, of which the state of Saxony will contribute co-financing of around 14 million euros. The IT Centre North will be subsidised with 70 million euros. The other two locations are likely to receive funding at a later date.

According to NOW GmbH, the funds for the federal funding come from the German Recovery and Resilience Plan, among others, and are provided via the European Recovery and Resilience Facilities (ARF) as part of the NextGenerationEU programme. According to Volker Wissing, German Minister for Digital and Transport Affairs, hydrogen offers a great opportunity to make mobility and the economy more sustainable and climate-neutral. “We must utilise this potential. This is the only way to reconcile climate policy goals with industrial policy goals and, at the same time, advance the technology. The hydrogen innovation and technology centres being funded today are making a decisive contribution to this.”

The hydrogen centres are intended to support small and medium-sized companies in particular, as well as the supplier industry, in the transformation towards climate-friendly technologies. “As incubators, they create the conditions for bringing new applications to market maturity – with state-of-the-art development, testing and testing infrastructure,” said Wissing. The Hydrogen Innovation Centre (HIC) in Chemnitz focuses primarily on the transformation of the supply industry and mechanical engineering. The focus here is on components, assemblies and systems as well as new test procedures and digital twins, particularly in the field of fuel cells and hydrogen applications, according to NOW GmbH.

The Hanseatic Hydrogen Centre for Aviation and Maritime (H2AM) in northern Germany, on the other hand, focuses on shipping and aviation. Those responsible are concentrating on the development and integration of fuel cell systems, hybrid drives, refuelling concepts and the storage and logistics of hydrogen and its derivatives.

The centre is to be linked to science and industry and “conceive, develop and directly test pioneering mobility concepts in practice,” as was already stated in 2021. Against this backdrop, the two facilities now being funded offer “state-of-the-art development and testing environments with specialised hydrogen laboratories and workshops at the highest international level,” according to NOW GmbH. They also combine expertise in industrial research and development, certification, standardisation and standardisation for technology development at German companies.

The recently awarded funding decisions for the hydrogen technology centres also show that the Ministry of Transport is once again investing in hydrogen projects. In the course of the so-called ‘hydrogen affair’ at the BMDV, the ministry had temporarily put the 2024 funding on hold. The affair involved suspicions of influence peddling in the allocation of funding. However, disciplinary proceedings against the former head of department, Klaus Bonhoff, were recently discontinued.

now-gmbh.de (in German)