The Baden-Württemberg Minister of the Environment Franz Untersteller and Minister of Economics Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut have asked the Federal Government in a joint letter to financially support the project “HyFab-Baden-Württemberg – Research Facility for Fuel Cells and Hydrogen”.
Production of the cell stacks at the Fraunhofer IKTS.
The aim of the project, which was developed by the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) in Ulm in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) in Freiburg and others from science and industry, is to strengthen the supply industry and to create an open, flexible platform in which fast, automated manufacturing and quality assurance procedures for so-called fuel cell stacks can be developed and tested.
“Our mobility must become climate-neutral and pollutant-free, we need the traffic change,” said Franz Untersteller in Stuttgart. It should not be set solely on battery electric vehicles. “For some applications, such as bus and truck transport, hydrogen and fuel cell technology in particular can play an important role,” emphasized the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Energy.
Minister for Economic Affairs Hoffmeister-Kraut emphasized: “Hydrogen offers great potential for efficiently connecting the transport and energy sectors. I am firmly convinced that we must use all possible and useful technologies to successfully tackle the energy and transport change. In addition to climate protection, it is of course important to maintain added value and jobs in the southwest, because Baden-Württemberg is the number one automotive location and will remain so in the future, “says Hoffmeister-Kraut.
The state government is committed to financial participation by the federal government
“In the industrialization of fuel cell production and thus making the use of fuel cells cheaper in vehicles has enormous potential for both the necessary CO 2 reduction in traffic as well as for the profiling of the domestic industry”, emphasized Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut in her letter to Federal Minister Peter Altmaier and Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer.
For the realization of the research facility, the country therefore plans to make up to 18.5 million euros available as part of the Strategy Dialogue for the Automotive Industry Baden-Württemberg (SDA). Overall, the project HyFab is expected to need 74 million euros in the next ten years.
“The project is ideally suited for a joint realization in the joint efforts of the federal government, the state and industry,” said Untersteller and Hoffmeister-Kraut on. “We have therefore asked the Federal Government to support the project with funds from the National Organization for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology, NOW.”
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