Germany
is without doubt the number one fuel cell country in Europe. Several thousand
employees in universities, research institutes and companies are involved in the
fuel cell business. Many of these organisations have also been active since the
early fuel cell days, and thus hold a lot of knowledge and experience in this
field. For instance Siemens, who has been working on several different fuel cell
technologies since the 1950s.
Much
of the funding for this work comes from the EU and the German government, but
the industry itself also finances large parts of the activities. Siemens, Opel,
DaimlerChrysler and Vaillant are only some of the large companies who have
working groups focussing only on future fuel cell products.
”The
German Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association promotes the introduction of hydrogen
as energy carrier, primarily in the energy and transportation sector. It brings
experts, companies, research institutes and so on together to let them exchange
their experience, contributes to the dissemination of the results and promotes
the public interest for the matter. It is therefore a "lobby" for the
energy carrier of the future.”
In
addition to the national organisation, there are several initiatives focussing
on fuel cell and hydrogen technology in specific regions of Germany. Some of
them are:
The
fuel cell and hydrogen sector in Germany covers a broad spectrum of organisations
and activities. This includes all stages of system development and almost all
kinds of fuel cell types and applications. Basic research is done at many of the
large universities, like the University of Duisburg-Essen
(H2 production, PEMFC),
TU Munchen (SOFC), University
of Karlsruhe (SOFC) and University
of Stuttgart (membrane).
This
list of organisations is far from complete, but already shows that Germany is
up-front in the field of fuel cells and hydrogen. The German Hydrogen and Fuel
Cell Association and its internet sites (www.dwv-info.de and
www.h2guide.de)
give more information on actors and activities in this field. Another great
German internet site is ”www.die-brennstoffzelle.de”, with comprehensive
information about fuel cell basics and technology development (only in German).
A MTU Hot Module in the Michelin tyre production plant in Karlsruhe.