HyStarter - Region Westpfalz

The West Palatinate region, represented by ZukunftsRegion Westpfalz e.V. (ZRW), has successfully applied in the "HyStarter Competition" of the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure. HyStarter is the first step on the way to becoming a hydrogen region and part of the federal government's HyLand strategy.

The West Palatinate region is one of the 15 winners selected to compete successfully in a nationwide field of 65 regions. Within the last 12 months, the ZRW and its partners in the region were supported technically and organizationally in the development of a regionally tailored hydrogen concept and the formation of a network for local hydrogen actors. With the help of the nationwide expertise of the supervising companies Energy Engineers GmbH and Spilett new technologies GmbH, a powerful network of actors was built up in the past months and a potential study was developed.

In five strategy workshops and dialogs that have already taken place, stakeholders from the West Palatinate region have been brought together and forward-looking hydrogen strategies have been developed. In addition to the PFI - Prüf- und Forschungsinstitut Pirmasens, the University of Applied Sciences and the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, the constantly growing group of actors also includes the Energy Agency Rhineland-Palatinate, Pfalzwerke AG, SWK Stadtwerke Kaiserslautern Versorgungs-AG, WVE GmbH Kaiserslautern and the Central Waste Management Kaiserslautern and its initiative Hydrogen Kaiserslautern - Blue Corridor.

The aim of the workshops was to develop a viable generation and utilization concept for the West Palatinate region. This strategy concept is also supposed to form the basis for further funding phases in the federal government's HyLand program. Furthermore, the spatial proximity and existing cooperation structures with other hydrogen regions such as Rheinhessen-Nahe, the city of Mainz, the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region and Saarland are to be used in order to create a European pioneer region for hydrogen technology.

On February 8, 2023, an info event took place at the SWK Haus des Wassers in Kaiserslautern, which aimed to present to the public the results of the project "Hydrogen in the West Palatinate Region" so far and to show the possibilities in the field of hydrogen applications (production, transport and use).

Four speakers were present who provided an insight into the topic of hydrogen, the HyLand program and the prospects for hydrogen in the region: Michael Walk from WVE GmbH Kaiserslautern, who has been supporting ZRW on the topic of hydrogen since the beginning of the HyStarter project, Michael Graß from NOW GmbH, who are responsible for the coordination of the HyStarter project, and Frederik Budschun and Justus Beste from EE ENERGY ENGINEERS, who are part of the supervising consortium of the HyStarter project and experts in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energies. The experts gave a positive outlook regarding the region and the topic of hydrogen, which is why they also encouraged the contributors in the HyStarter region West Palatinate to apply for the next stage of the competition (HyExpert).