German Hydrogen Congress: hybrid charging stations complement renewable energy

July 7^th 2016 – Oliver Arnhold, head of the team “Mobility with renewable energy” at RLI has participated in the „7. Deutscher Wasserstoff Congress“ (7^th German Hydrogen Congress) on July 5^th 2016 in Berlin. Oliver shared his perspective on the German energy and transport transition and presented current results of his research. In front of 200 experts, he spoke about the “charging station of the future” and the consequences of the transport transition for the development of renewable energy on national level, storages, and peak-load electricity generation plants in Germany.

Norbert Barthle, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure stated in his welcome keynote: “Hydrogen and fuel cell technology is an important alternative […] to battery-powered vehicles which are still limited in range and performance.”

Oliver Arnhold adds: “RLI results show that the potential of hydrogen technologies is even greater.  A mix of battery- and fuel-cell-powered vehicles would also facilitate linking sectors. Hybrid charging stations close to motorways would need only half of the necessary electric performance at network connection points, compared to pure power charging stations, which would lower costs for operators and users. On national level, hydrogen infrastructure offers more flexibility to renewable power systems, thus, could reduce the necessity for additional storages and peak-load electricity generation plants.

Oliver’s presentation slides are available upon request.