Keynote: Stakeholder Forum of the European Partnership for Fuel Cells and Hydrogen (englisch)

Mr de Colvenaer,
Mr Smits,
Mr Ristori,
Professor Kohler,
Mr Franc,
Mr Mayor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Hamburg has made the political decision to allow its transport companies Hochbahn and Verkehrsbetriebe Hamburg-Holstein to acquire only emission-free buses for urban public transport from the year 2020.
It is our declared objective to get fuel cell buses ready for everyday operation by the end of the present decade and achieve the economy they need for scheduled line service. For only then can hydrogen play a major role as a clean energy vector, with fuel cells for efficient energy generation.

I’m speaking of industrial policy that will also initiate a practical improvement in the environmental situation of our cities if it is implemented successfully. Those cities that learn to use technical progress for their own benefit will be able to meet the limits for nitrogen dioxide in due time. The same applies to noise abatement. But to achieve that we have to enable industry to put state-of-the-art vehicle drivetrains based on hydrogen on the market as soon as possible, and not just at some time in the future. In Hamburg that means: by the end of the decade.

Technical progress comes about through forging ahead on the regional level. California, for example, has initiated progress in automobile drive technology again and again. But Hamburg is the second biggest buyer of urban buses in Germany. About 1500 of them are running on our streets in the service of the municipal enterprises. More than hundred new ones have to be purchased every year.

That is why the regional initiatives are so extremely important: so that industry decision makers know what is expected of them and are also aware of the opportunities that are opening up. On the one hand we specify the requirements, and on the other hand we are the reliable buyers, so that industry has an incentive and at the same time security. That gives a boost to the whole system.
And that is why our development laboratory for buses is as important as legislation in California.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
In this connection, of course, the new funding programme of the Fuell Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking is especially interesting to us. We wish to thank you for the support we have already received from Brussels.

This special interest of ours is understandable and justified, I feel, since Hamburg is reckoned to be successful and resolute in implementing fuel cell technology.

Do we really have an alternative to the decision to put more faith in innovation? No, we don’t. Because if we are to safeguard the quality of life in our cities we have to encourage the deliberate choice of a means of transport; we also have to ensure a better combination of transport modes. Intermodality: that is what city-dwellers want nowadays. And we have to switch to climate-friendly, quiet and comfortable drive systems for road vehicles.

It is no exaggeration if I describe our task as a democratization” of transport. That is one reason why our strategy in Hamburg is not to insist on harsh, regulatory measures but to make the offers more attractive to all users. And it is both a challenge and a help to us that notably young city-dwellers are increasingly open-minded about their choice of a means of transport.

Big cities are expanding all the time, both in Germany and in other countries. Economic growth, growth of the population and the volume of traffic we won’t be able to deal with any of these issues without innovation, without solving the problem of air pollution control and noise abatement, not least because of the European framework regulations on air quality.

So that why systematic cooperation with motor vehicle manufacturers in getting clean drive systems ready for the market is the order of the day. For a long time Hamburg has maintained a strategic partnership with major car and bus manufacturers.

So what are we doing, in concrete terms? Already there are some 1,000 electrically powered vehicles in use in Hamburg, run mainly by commercial enterprises. We are receiving a great deal of support from the Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Crafts, who are going about seeking and assisting new users very systematically.

The Hamburg Senate has decided that public authorities and public enterprises must acquire solely electrically powered passenger cars whenever possible. Nearly 300 e-cars are already being used by public institutions.

The infrastructure must expand along with this. By the end of 2016, 600 more electric vehicle charging stations will have been set up in the public realm. All electric power provided there is from renewable sources.

By the summer of 2015 we shall have five filling stations for hydrogen accessible to the public. That is a good basis for a growing number of vehicles, whether buses or private cars. We are planning the next filling stations together with our European neighbours, for example Denmark, in order to make cross-border traffic possible.

By the way, we are seeking to introduce a larger percentage of electrically driven taxis in Hamburg in the near future, too. The battery vehicles currently in use have a limited range, so they are by no means ideal. In future we will concentrate more on vehicles with fuel cells and hydrogen for this purpose.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Obviously, we don’t have to re-invent mobility completely. There are many approaches to organizing it purposefully, which we intend to use across the different systems. Our strategic vision for the future is to link up the two sectors Energy and Transport, which have been separate so far, systematically and on a constant basis.

Hamburg calls itself Germany’s Capital of Wind” if that doesn’t sound too airy-fairy in English. Nearly all the major companies in the wind industry are based there, or at least have a branch. And the sector is still expanding in the North. But at the same time there is no simultaneous demand for a considerable percentage of the wind energy available. So what we need is energy storage facilities, large and small, that can also compensate for seasonal fluctuations in supply and demand. Hydrogen produced by electrolysis could play a significant role and thus contribute to the energy turnaround.

If hydrogen is used on a larger scale in buses and cars as we already use it on a small scale that will also create value added in the region and make us less dependent on fossil fuels from politically unstable parts of the world in the medium term.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Emission-free buses have to mature for reliable, everyday use. Here we need the help of the bus manufacturers where the maturity of the technology and the timeframe for supplying suitable vehicles is concerned. In Hamburg we have so far enjoyed a large measure of trust in our approach to the subject of hydrogen technology. What we need now is support from industry for the rest of the way. I’m speaking for many other European population metropolises as well as Hamburg, I think, when I say the market is ready and the ball is in the manufacturers’ playing field now!

Once again I would like to emphasize the importance of fuel cell buses. They need little in the way of infrastructure, and with their high mileage they create excellent conditions for optimizing the technology quickly. Very likely we shall go on using other electrically driven buses, too, for example with batteries. But one advantage of the fuel cell buses is their flexibility in use. Their technical standard has improved greatly. The challenge now is to reduce the cost of the vehicles and their operation.

Economies of scale, aided by growing demand, will have a positive effect on the price of the buses themselves and the hydrogen. So I would very much like to thank the Joint Undertaking, and in particular Bert de Colvenaer, for initiating the Commercialisation Study for Fuel Cell Buses. More than thirty European regions have now shown interest in fuel cell buses in the context of this market study, most of them with concrete ideas for the next few years. That is an encouraging sign. I’m looking forward to cooperating with the decision-makers in the other cities and regions in a European alliance for climate-friendly buses.

My thanks also go to the bus manufacturers represented here. It doesn’t often happen that competitors join forces to develop a pioneering technology together. In the Letter of Understanding you are about to sign you announce just that. The study shows that there is a market for emission-free buses. Together with other pilot regions we can bring this market to life. If the buses demonstrate their advantages in daily operation here, I’m sure other cities will follow.

But the study shows, too, that innovative buses can’t be operated at the same cost as conventional vehicles for some long time. I also regard this Stakeholders’ Meeting as a signal from Joint Undertaking that it will support us with funds for the transformation process. And I wish to thank you for that too, in anticipation.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I´d like to mention two other applications we are working on in Hamburg. These are the maritime sector and aviation.
All ports have a problem with pollutant emissions from large vessels, such as cruise ships, especially when these are being used as hotels in harbours. Together with two well-known shipyards in North Germany we develop different types of stationary, multifunctional fuel cells on ships. This fits in perfectly with the establishment of a filling station infrastructure for liquefied natural gas (LNG) that we are currently pushing ahead with in our port. Our joint political objective must be to achieve quick approval for the regular use of fuel cells on ships from the International Maritime Organisation.

Fuel cells would reduce the pollutant emissions from ships by more than two-thirds. We are working on similar projects with aircraft at Airbus. Then there are other typical applications on airports, such as baggage towing trucks and ground power units. Here, too, it would be worth cooperating with other European airports in order to exploit cost-saving potential.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
As the quintessence of all this I venture to assert that the transformation process in the fields of transport and energy can only be triggered jointly, as a concerted effort by industry and users in other words, the cities and regions and ultimately only on a pan-European basis. But that is what we have each other for!

Growing demand and certainty that the technical objectives will be achieved are essential requirements for the market. But the transition will only succeed if it is given the necessary political and financial support in the initial stages. Funding from the European programmes in the context of the Joint Undertaking, and Horizon 2020, is a very good offer. So I thank you for that once again.
Initiatives to make hydrogen from renewable sources competitive include taking into account the super-credits in the European Fuel Quality Directive and in the Renewable Guideline for the refining process. Agreement on this issue in the short term between the European Council and the European Parliament would be very welcome.
 
What counts for the people of our cities is for the transfer from trains to buses, to hired bicycles or their own e-bikes, as well as a car sharing offer or an electrically powered taxi, to function smoothly throughout the region.

Many of the world’s major metropolitan regions are re-orienting their transport policy along these lines, and they know they will need flexible high performance e-mobility in order to do so. And it can be done: from the technical point of view we already have a large toolbox which we must use to design vehicles suitable for series production, hand in hand with industry. It is essential not just to realize lighthouse projects, but to make sure we bring marketable products to our energy networks and onto our roads in the near future.

Fuel cell buses can be a good start as technological leaps forward take place again and again. For example, the hydrogen consumption has been more than halved from the last-but-one generation of buses to the present. But we need further optimizations and cost reductions, and these we hope to realize jointly with our partners.

That is why our Hochbahn is a member of the Clean Energy Partnership. In the European CHIC project it is helping to optimize fuel cell buses, and
it was one of the founder members of the Hydrogen Bus Alliance.

But we have to harmonize and concentrate the political initiatives if we are to make faster progress in cooperation with the European Union, the national governments and industry.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Higher environmental standards will create a pressure for innovation in both the motor vehicle industry and the logistics sector that would not otherwise come about to a sufficient extent”: that is what it says in a German study hot off the press. In London, where I’m going by train after this event, plans are already being made for an Ultra Low Emission Zone”. We have a lot to do. Let’s get on with it!

Es gilt das gesprochene Wort.