Hydrogen technology offers great potential for achieving the energy transition, a concept which has been examined in the HyAllgäu feasibility study in the Allgäu region. The results and possibilities have now been presented to the Federal Transport Ministry and State Minister Hubert Aiwanger.
Since 2019, the district of Oberallgäu and the town of Kempten have been cooperating on the HyAllgäu project. Within a year, a feasibility study was carried out by the bluemove company from Munich as well as a scientific analysis by Kempten University. The central question was how hydrogen as an energy carrier can be produced and used for the purposes of the energy transition as well as for regional economic development. This was fully funded by the National Investment Programme for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology (NIP II) from the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure. The funding guideline is coordinated by NOW GmbH and implemented by Project Management Jülich (PtJ).
Hydrogen is already needed today for the industry sector. Up to now however, so-called grey hydrogen has been used. It is generated from fossil energy, or at best as a waste product from other chemical products. Green Allgäu hydrogen should soon provide an alternative – for example as a first step, generated from the Kempten/Lauben purification plant of the waste water association of Kempten.
The results of the study are positive: hydrogen can be produced in an environmentally-friendly way and at competitive prices. This makes it possible to transform Allgäu energy into a tradable commodity. By delivering it locally with short transport distances to public buses, industrial or residential areas, swimming pools, etc., a local economic cycle is created. This message of the HyAllgäu feasibility study was conveyed to Federal Minister Scheuer and State Minister Aiwanger by Oberallgäu District Administrator Baier-Müller and Kempten Mayor Kiechle at the event.