- Costs
of EUR 3.5 billion are moderate for hydrogen infrastructure until 2020
- Linde proposes circular hydrogen
motorway across Germany
- International comparison indicates
good chances for the industrial location Germany
Berlin-- China is investing USD
36 billion in the preparation of the Olympic Games, the Eurofighter costs
EUR 24 billion, EUR 5.5 billion were required for building the rail track
between Cologne and Frankfurt and 99 kilometers of motorway from Göttingen
to Halle has a budget of EUR 1.2 billion - in comparison to these large
sums, the costs for the implementation of a European hydrogen infrastructure
are moderate.
"The implementation of an infrastructure
for the whole of Europe by 2020 would only cost EUR 3.5 billion, and thus
only half as much as the annual investment in Microsoft research", says
Dr. Wolfgang Reitzle, chairman of the board of Linde technology company
within the course of the "International Hydrogen Day" in Berlin. At the
same time, Reitzle bid for support from politics and the economy to further
develop the environmentally friendly and seminal hydrogen technology. "Hydrogen
will give us a great opportunity to strengthen Germany as a place of industry
and innovation in the long term. We all should take this chance together."
Linde introduced a new study of
the internationally renowned energy expert David Hart in front of approximately
200 participants from the economy, politics and media. This study states
concrete facts and figures and puts previous assumptions about the costs
of a hydrogen infrastructure on a firm footing:
- The infrastructure for the
supply of 1.9 million vehicles by 2020 in Germany would cost EUR 870 million
or EUR 467 per car.
- A centralized hydrogen production
and storage could provide hydrogen for 41million vehicles if approximately
EUR 18.5 billion were invested.
- Investors who are willing
to invest in the implementation of a hydrogen infrastructure can expect
profits after 10 to 15 years.
Furthermore, the price for hydrogen
is only half as high as the price for fuel. Due to the high taxes on fuel,
hydrogen could already be competitive today.
As an initial step, Linde suggests
to provide a circular motorway with hydrogen that covers nearly all of
the development and production locations of German automotive manufacturers.
This route with a length of approximately 800 km would run from Berlin
via Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne/Düsseldorf and Hanover/Wolfsburg back
to Berlin. Linde estimates required costs of no more than EUR 30 million.
In comparison, this would correspond to just half a percent of the investments
that were required for the 200 km ICE high speed train line from Cologne
to Frankfurt.
"In the meantime, we have solved
the main technical issues for the use of hydrogen as an environmentally
friendly fuel in every day life", says Dr. Aldo Belloni, member of the
board of Linde AG and responsible for the business segment gas and engineering.
The most significant milestones on this were:
- The first mobile filling station
with 700-bar technology,
- A system that reduces the filling
process to three minutes,
- New compressors that save a considerably
larger amount of energy to generate super-cooled liquid hydrogen,
- The re-liquefaction technology,
which reduces the condensation losses of liquid hydrogen to less than 10%
of the normal amount,
- Tanks with an optimized shape
for liquid hydrogen that can be used in cars and buses.
The great importance of hydrogen
worldwide as the fuel of the future is emphasized by the UN organisation
United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) under the management of Prof.
Klaus Töpfer who had assumed patronage of the "International Hydrogen
Day". The list of speakers only confirmed the global dimension of the subject:
Apart from the Federal Minister
of Economics Wolfgang Clement, other high-ranking speakers such as Franz-Xaver
Söldner (European Commission), Jiro Nagao (Ministry of Economics,
Technology and Industry, METI, Japan), Marco Baroni (International Energy
Agency, IEA) and Dr. Robert Dixon (Department of Energy, USA) were present.
The governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger sent a video message.
He has given top priority to the subject of "hydrogen": California is currently
building a "Hydrogen Highway".
Linde is an international technology
corporation with leading market position in both its business segments
gas and engineering and material handling. Linde has 41,000 employees worldwide
and achieved an annual turnover of approximately EUR 9 billion.
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