Hydrogen demand potentials up to the year 2050 in Germany and the European Union

Due to the weather dependency of electricity generation from wind and sun, volatile generation is one of the main problems of renewable energies, as in times with a lot of sun and wind there is an overproduction which cannot be stored. In many cases, power plants have to be shut down to keep the grid stable, as it is very uneconomical to store the electricity in these quantities. An alternative would be to produce hydrogen with the help of renewable energies. Using an electrolyser and water, electricity can be split into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can be used as a storage medium and offers many other possible uses. On the basis of climate change and the energy turnaround, this thesis examined not only the political aspects, but also the basic principles of hydrogen production and its possible use in various processes for Germany and the European Union. The following areas were considered in this work: 1. non-metallic minerals, 2. steel production, 3. chemistry, 4. building heat sector, and 5. mobility sector. Based on topic-based studies and statistics, a hydrogen demand potential until the year 2050 was projected in the mentioned sectors. In addition to the demand potential for hydrogen, the required renewable electricity was also determined in a potential analysis and possible storage capacities for hydrogen were investigated.