(c) Article image: Environmental Campus Birkenfeld
With a press conference yesterday, Thursday, Environment Minister Katrin Eder gave the official go-ahead for the hydrogen model project at the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld in the town hall of the Birkenfeld community. “The state of Rhineland-Palatinate supports this innovative initiative, which will provide us with new insights in research and development as well as in practical applications,” stated Climate Protection Minister Katrin Eder. She went on to emphasise that in Birkenfeld Land, unlike in other regions, she did not have to convince anyone that the energy transition had to be driven forward. With the hydrogen project at the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld, the Birkenfeld community, in cooperation with the Institute for Applied Material Flow Management (IfaS) and the Rhineland-Palatinate Fuel Cell Competence Centre, is demonstrating in an exemplary way how the planning and implementation of regional hydrogen potential works in practice. In close cooperation with Professors Dr. Heck and Dr. Hoogers of the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld, the Birkenfeld Municipality succeeded in acquiring a forward-looking project for the development of a hydrogen infrastructure at the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld. As a climate protection model project, it is planned to supply the site with locally produced renewable energy all year round. This is to be made possible by exploiting the high PV potentials in combination with hydrogen production as a storage system including reverse power generation by stationary fuel cells as well as fuel for zero-emission mobility in the Zero-Emission National Park Hunsrück-Hochwald. The H2Campus project is intended to create an incubator for the use and dissemination of innovative hydrogen technology in the Hunsrück-Hochwald National Park region. The Ministry of the Environment is currently working on a hydrogen strategy until autumn, which will then serve to set the long-term course for the forward-looking expansion of this technology, reported Minister Eder. Therefore, it would be nice to have such a model project in the country, where one can show on site how the provision of energy through hydrogen works in practice, she continued.