The "WIR! – Change through Innovation in the Region" programme, launched in 2017, is progressing. Twenty-three alliances, selected in August 2021 as part of "WIR!", are now in their six-year implementation phase.
Germany's goal is to become largely greenhouse gas neutral by 2045. At least 80 percent of the electricity supply and 60 percent of the total energy supply are to be provided from renewable energies. The current energy system is to be transformed into an emission-free energy system based on renewable energies.
"We are now subjecting CAMPFIRE to a "target/actual analysis" with regard to new necessary solution and strategy approaches, including the funding projects derived to date, and are setting out our next steps in an expanded concept. To this end, our company-led strategy team and our advisory board reviewed the CAMPFIRE approach for a future global, carbon-free ammonia-hydrogen energy system and further developed the necessary strategy," said Dr Angela Kruth, coordinator and spokesperson for CAMPFIRE.
"CAMPFIRE" stands for sustainable structural change in the North-East region through the development of innovative pathways and the exploitation of economic advantages for small and medium-sized enterprises in the North-East region, which is mainly located in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (M-V). The 72 partners, primarily based in the North-East region, are jointly pursuing the goal of developing exportable technologies for NH3 production, transport and use as a fuel and energy storage medium.
The next phase of implementation will focus on technology transfer and the commercialisation of scientific inventions with the aim of producing ammonia (NH3) for use as a fuel on water and land. This includes the creation of the necessary research interfaces within the framework of TransHyDE, the CAMPFIRE implementation project. It is one of the three hydrogen flagship projects of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) from the future package for implementing the "National Hydrogen Strategy in Germany" adopted in 2020. In detail, this means addressing research interfaces for the seasonal production of green ammonia, the construction of refuelling stations for the import of green NH3 from ship to shore and from ship to ship, the creation of load-flexible ammonia plants for the seasonal production of NH3 from renewable energy, including dynamic conversion technologies for stationary and mobile energy supply, and the construction of ammonia-to-hydrogen filling stations in conjunction with the development of the associated logistics, and the creation of framework conditions for the use of NH3 and hydrogen for fuel cells, ammonia crackers and seasonal micro-Haber-Bosch processes for energy storage.
Above all, the focus is on a carbon-free, secure energy supply. In the long term, effective economic ways of reducing the global carbon dioxide content in the Earth's atmosphere will emerge. "In phase 2 of 'WIR!', we are now ensuring that the industrial and scientific focus of CAMPFIRE is maintained by creating an 'open innovation platform'. Our goal is to establish CAMPFIRE gAG," says Angela Kruth.
"WIR!" is aimed at broad-based regional alliances such as the regional partner alliance "CAMPFIRE" coordinated by the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP) in Greifswald and under the strategic and technological leadership of the Centre for Fuel Cell Technology in Duisburg. As part of the CAMPFIRE implementation project in the BMBF's TransHyDE flagship project, industry-relevant testing and trial fields for the new ammonia technologies are being set up in the COIL - CAMPFIRE Open Innovation Lab on the industrial site of YARA Rostock in Poppendorf.
The "WIR!" funding measure is part of the "Innovation & Structural Change" programme family, with which the BMBF supports change in structurally weak regions. Around 600 million euros will be available for "Innovation & Structural Change" by 2025 alone.
