Germany will in future classify hydrogen production as being of “overriding public interest” in a bid to facilitate the licensing and implementation of new projects, energy policy newsletter Tagesspiegel Background reported. The coalition government parties agreed to expand the country’s hydrogen acceleration act to not only cover “green hydrogen” made with renewable energy sources but also include so-called “blue hydrogen,” produced from fossil gas using carbon capture and storage (CCS).

The amended law, seen by the publication, is expected to be approved by parliament on Wednesday (25 February).

Energy industry association BDEW and the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) had advocated for extending the law to also include hydrogen derived from non-renewable sources, known as low-carbon hydrogen. They argued that this was essential to ramp up the hydrogen economy and transform industry already before enough additional renewable energy sources are available to produce adequate amounts of green hydrogen.