Milestones

On 9 November 2023, the Working Group 1 "Energy Transition" of the Japanese-German Energy Partnership came together for its 5th meeting. The working group meetings serve to exchange information on current energy policy and energy industry developments in both countries, to reflect on past activities and key topics of the working group and to discuss and define future activities and priorities.

Anton Hufnagl (Federal Ministry for Economics and Climate Action) and Hideyuki Umeda (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) opened the joint meeting as new co-chairs of the working group. The subsequent policy updates addressed topics including the new Building Energy Act, municipal heat planning, carbon pricing and energy efficiency issues in Germany as well as innovation, grid reinforcement plans and developments in renewable energies in Japan among other things.

Following an overview of the working group's previous events and topics, both sides agreed to continue the fruitful dialogue on issues relating to offshore wind energy and extend discussions to PV in the future, for example with regard to the potential of new technologies such as perovskite solar cells (PSC) and challenges related to sustainable and secure supply chains for critical materials.

On September 27, the 4th meeting of Working Group 2 on Hydrogen of the Japanese-German Energy Partnership took place. The WG2 co-chairs Dr. Christine Falken-Großer (Federal Ministry for Economics and Climate Action (BMWK)) and Tomohiko Adachi (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)) together with further ministry representatives and guest experts exchanged insights and viewpoints on current developments in hydrogen policy, reflected on previous cooperation and activities, and discussed future joint projects and focus topics. The WG co-chairs provided insights on the updated national hydrogen strategies, underlining the increased ambition of both countries to promote the hydrogen market ramp-up and become technology leaders.

JPN hydrogen targets:
▶️ Japan is aiming for a hydrogen supply of 3 Mt by 2030, 12 Mt by 2040 and 20 Mt by 2050, and an electrolysis target of 15 GW by 2030 with Japanese companies involved.
▶️ The current demand of 2 Mt (mainly in refineries and the chemical industry) is to be replaced by low-carbon hydrogen in the short term.
▶️ The industry is to set voluntary targets for the switch to (clean) hydrogen, and in the long term there will be mandatory quotas.

GER hydrogen targets:
▶️ The target for domestic electrolysis capacity has been increased from 5 GW by 2030 to 10 GW by 2030.
▶️ The annual demand for hydrogen in Germany is expected to be 95 to 130 TWh by 2030 (currently: 55 TWh).
▶️ A separate import strategy is to be published this year, as a large part of the hydrogen supply (50-70%) is to be covered by imports.

While Japan almost exclusively will import hydrogen in the future via ships, Germany is also looking at additional supply channels via pipelines from neighboring countries and from domestic production of H2.

Moreover, the WG talked about the topic of hydrogen financing. It was discussed how targeted policy measures and instruments can stimulate and incentivize private and public funds for the necessary investments in the hydrogen economy. Toyoda Kohei from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Rei Motoyama and Geoff Crum from Deutsche Bank and Elisabeth Sterner from H2Global Foundation provided the basis for an interesting and lively discussion with insightful short presentations.

The co-chairs of the WG decided on a regular exchange on the development and design of financing instruments for the hydrogen market ramp-up in both countries. Furthermore, among other topics, the WG will focus on hydrogen infrastructure, hydrogen safety and synthetic natural gas (SNG).

The Japanese-German research trip on green hydrogen, including several site-visits, started on February 27 with the 3rd meeting of the hydrogen working group of the Japanese-German Energy Partnership at BMWK in Berlin. Dr. Christine Falken-Großer (BMWK) welcomed the Japanese delegation with her counterpart Tomahiko Adachi (METI) to discuss recent developments in hydrogen policy and past and future activities of the working group. The morning session was dedicated to recent developments on hydrogen policies in both countries, an update on H2Global, green hydrogen certification and regulatory framework conditions for hydrogen usage. The focus of the afternoon session was on different use-cases and no-regret applications for hydrogen in different sectors, such as green steel and hydrogen mobility. Future discussions of the working group will include different financing mechanisms, hydrogen transport and infrastructure as well as a deep dive into the decarbonization of the steel and chemical industry. On February 28, the research trip continued with several exciting site-visits to exchange on and gain practical insights into German hydrogen technologies and projects. The day started with a visit and tour of the HydrogenLab at Fraunhofer-Institut für Windenergiesysteme (IWES) in Leuna, which serves as a research unit for electrolysis tests and also included a specific in-depth explanation on the on-site Sunfire GmbH high-temperature elctrolyser. The second visit to the Fraunhofer Center for Chemical Biotechnological Processes (CBP), focused on the combination of biotechnological processes with chemical processes, for example, Power-to-X. The informative day ended with a visit to Graforce GmbH which offers promising power-to-X modular plants for the generation of CO2-free or CO2-negative hydrogen and synthetic raw materials. March 1st concluded the research trip with meetings of two innovative players of the German hydrogen industry landscape. In the morning, the delegation received an in-depth presentation on the different H2-solutions of the APEX Group for Ptx, H2-mobility and H2-storage and transport solutions, followed by an insightful tour of the company’s own hydrogen power plant located in Rostock-Laage and their H2-refuelling station. In the afternoon, representatives of EXYTRON Vertrieb GmbH, located in Rostock, provided insights on their patented power-to-X-energy systems and explained how a hydrogen-based, emission-free and self-sufficient energy supply can be realized for residential quarters, commercial and industrial facilities and even entire city districts.

On the 27th of September the 2nd Cooperation Committee Meeting (CCM) of the Japanese-German Energy Partnership took place as a hybrid meeting in Tokyo and online as a video conference with representatives from both ministries. The meeting serves to discuss the results of the cooperation so far and to set the goals and priorities for the future activities within the energy partnership. Current topics in energy policy were discussed and representatives from both countries provided insights into recent developments. The two working groups (WG1 Energy Transition, WG2 Hydrogen) presented their focus topics discussed so far, the formats that have already been implemented, and which next steps are planned. The working groups have dealt so far with diverse issues such as energy efficiency, offshore wind energy, the liberalization of the electricity market, digitalization and energy management, support schemes for hydrogen production and international hydrogen projects, integrated supply chains and the role of hydrogen hubs. As part of the delegation trip, a German and Japanese delegation also took part in the Hydrogen Energy Ministerial Meeting, which took place the day before the CCM, on September 26, with the participation of high-ranking politicians from various countries to deepen the discussions on the multinational cooperation and promotion of hydrogen.

With a special focus on offshore wind and energy efficiency, the 4th meeting of the Energy Transition Working Group took place on May 10th with the participation of METI and BMWK as well as experts from the two priority areas. The ministries took the opportunity to learn about current energy policy developments in their respective partner countries, from which new ideas for future exchange formats could be generated. In the subsequent discussion round, the challenges, but also the importance of expanding renewable energies and increasing energy efficiency in view of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine were discussed.

On 5th of April, during the 2nd meeting of the Hydrogen Working Group, a fruitful exchange took place between representatives of the partner ministries METI and BMWK as well as hydrogen experts on national hydrogen hubs and the complementary development of international supply chains. The presentation of the hydrogen hubs in the prefectures of Fukushima and Yamanashi as well as in Hamburg and Essen illustrated how the task of simultaneous development of supply and demand is implemented in Japan and Germany. The discussion made clear that while ample political support is ensured overall, it should have a stronger focus on stimulating demand, e.g. in the form of bridging the price gap between hydrogen and conventional solutions. The exchange highlighted that both countries face similar challenges and opportunities when it comes to building regional and international hydrogen supply chains.