Michael Liebreich Profile picture
Jun 2, 2022 11 tweets 7 min read Read on X
This week's guest on @MLCleaningUp was my friend @P_Graichen, Mr #Energiewende, Secretary of State for Economy and Climate Action in Germany. We talked nuclear, renewables, hydrogen and German's response to Ukraine. I pushed him pretty hard, don't miss it!
cleaningup.live/ep88-patrick-g…
It's an incredibly deep interview, and quite explosive in parts. For instance here @P_Graichen explains that the German heating industry needs to increase installations by 4-5 times in 18 months, from 130,000 to 800,000 or 900,000 installations per year. youtube.com/clip/Ugkx7d956…
The entire value chain in solar, in wind, in heat pumps - has to grow three to four-fold. @P_Graichen is telling industry to invest, but sometimes, he says, he is astonished that industry doesn't seem to believe that this is actually going to happen. youtube.com/clip/UgkxV2c5s…
State Secretary Graichen does not see Germany or the EU applying local content rules to capture jobs associated with the net zero transition, but he does see #reshoring and #friendshoring because of the Ukraine war and over-reliance on China. youtube.com/clip/UgkxYP7Kn…
So then we discussed how current events are forcing Germany to rethink its entire economic model and its reliance on free trade. "Suddenly there's geopolitics. And to be honest, Germany was never really good at geopolitics." Well that's honest!
youtube.com/clip/Ugkxxs9Yq…
As @P_Graichen explains, Germany never had a law mandating minimum gas storage going into winter. "Then we ended up finding out that there were gas storages owned by Gazprom, and they were empty at the beginning of this winter. Looking back we know why!"
youtube.com/clip/UgkxfCZDI…
As for #uclear, @P_Graichen says that "the nuclear issue is basically gone and decided". Here he explains why keeping the last three German nuclear plants open was considered, but not really an option:
youtube.com/clip/UgkxkdHLm…
It was a very honest interview. Secretary of State @P_Graichen says renewables, efficiency, electrification and resilience are not in conflict; however, he worries how to allocate his team's time between working on them versus on diversification of supply.
youtube.com/clip/Ugkxdciln…
Of course, the backdrop to all this is the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. Germany is currently planning to keep buying Russian gas for the next two years. I ask @P_Graichen why the words "never again" don't mean an immediate stop to these purchases.youtube.com/clip/UgkxJuGEk…
The whole section on Germany's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine is very much worth listening to. @P_Graichen does his best to answer what are undoubtedly the toughest questions in energy policy today. Listen from 32'11" to 40'09" right now.
In parts it makes quite uncomfortable listening. Here I challenge State Secretary @P_Graichen over the remark by Finance Minister Christian Lindner that "we have to be patient". If only all politicians were prepared to be questioned like this.
youtube.com/clip/UgkxSQXxy…

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More from @MLiebreich

Jul 17
European Court of Auditors @EUauditors says "The EU’s industrial policy on renewable hydrogen needs a reality check" because its targets "were not based on a robust analysis". We know the targets came from @H2Europe becuase @JorgoChatzimarkakis said so. Would he care to comment? Image
For those interested in the detail, here is my @CleaningUpPod conversation with @Chatzimarkakis, in which he explains how Hydrogen Europe's 2x 40 targets were inserted into the EU Hydrogen Strategy.
cleaningup.live/ep115-jorgo-ch…
@CleaningUpPod @Chatzimarkakis Here is an extremely watchable (and absolutely withering) look at the EU Hydrogen Strategy by @dwnews, Germany's state-owned overseas broadcaster (equivalent to BBC WorldWide). dw.com/en/the-eus-amb…
Read 6 tweets
Feb 22, 2023
It will take until 2030 to reign in the current bout of hydrogen mania, embark on a real plan to eliminate the 2.3% of emissions currently caused by 94 Mt/year of grey & black hydrogen, and target its use on a few otherwise hard-to-decarbonise sectors. We are in the foothills. 1/
Let me be quite clear - we will need clean hydrogen. But fantasies of a hydrogen economy, hydrogen society and globally traded hydrogen market need to be abandoned. There will be a global market in ammonia, but mainly for fertilisers, chemicals, shipping fuel and some storage. 2/
Again, to be clear. The issue is not production cost. Learning curves mean green hydrogen will end up cheaper than grey. But nothing will change the physics and thermodynamics of hydrogen: low density; escapey; explodey; embrittley; NOx-producey if burnt; greenhouse gasey. 3/
Read 18 tweets
Feb 11, 2023
Looking for something to read or listen to this weekend? I've been busy, released a whole load of stuff you won't want to miss. So much, in fact, that I've listed it all in a🧵. So pour yourself that cup of 🫖 or a glass of 🍷🍺🍸 and let's get started...
First up, my piece for @TheEconomist. It's a response to Vinod Khosla, who believes we should stop deploying wind and solar because they can't deliver "baseload" (🤣), and in a few decades something better might come along. We need research AND deployment. economist.com/by-invitation/…
Next, there were so many loose ends after my @MLCleaningUp conversation with Jorgo @Chatzimarkakis, CEO of @H2Europe, that I just had to write a piece summarising my key takeaways and debunking some of his wild claims. One for hydrogen realists everywhere!
linkedin.com/pulse/jorgo-ch…
Read 9 tweets
Dec 10, 2022
What bollox. Which other "heating alternatives" require you to change your oven, hob, gas meter and fireplaces, bring all old pipework up to standard, repair all micro-leaks, add Excess Flow Valves and ventilation, and still leave you buying more expensive fuel and breathing NOx?
If you really want to know what safety measures are required to make hydrogen as safe as gas in your home (though still less safe than eliminating gas altogether), read the report by @Arup on behalf of the government. Particularly section 14 on p101.
hy4heat.info/s/conclusions-…
Fuel cost will also be 2-4 times as high. If it's blue hydrogen, you have to start with 47% more 'natural' gas for the same heat - simply chemistry - plus you have the cost of CO2 capture and storage. If it's green hydrogen, you're talking 4-6 times the electricity of heap pumps.
Read 4 tweets
Nov 28, 2022
Only Secretary of State for @beisgovuk, explaining how to turn down boiler flow temperatures. Nothing to see. Congrats @betateach @heatpolicyrich @theheatinghub @_heatgeek @GreenAlbionLtd @AbigailDombey @janrosenow @mikefosterEUA @ClemCowton @nesta_uk @EarthOrgUK and many more!
How it started (at least for me: lots of others had already been trying to address the UK heating industry's scandalous mis-selling, mis-installing and mis-maintanance of condensing boilers for years).
Read 4 tweets
Nov 26, 2022
A thread for those who think we're going to be importing lots of hydrogen over vast distances.

1. Shipping liquid hydrogen is not going to be a thing. To understand why, you need to understand that hydrogen is basically liquid, -253C escapey, explodey expanded polystyrene. Image
2. What this means is that any comparison with LNG is, ahem, bollox. We cracked LNG shipping, but it's the most expensive gas on the market. And shipping the same BTUs as liquid hydrogen would require 3-4 times as many ships. Because of physics, not lack of learning, scale, etc. Image
3. Liquifying hydrogen is also a complete bear. It currently consumes 35% to 45% of the Lower Heating Value of the input. If you don't know about LHV and HHV, or about ortho-para isomer conversion, please read more and tweet less about liquid hydrogen!
pubs.rsc.org/en/content/art…
Read 16 tweets

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