“Green hydrogen is freedom”: H2-diplo Ukraine conducts Green Horizons Study Tour

In ear­ly May, the H2-dip­lo Office Ukraine organ­ised the Green Hori­zons Study Tour across Ger­many for a Ukrain­ian del­e­ga­tion rep­re­sent­ing min­istries, acad­e­mia, civ­il soci­ety and the pri­vate sec­tor. Over five days and five cities, the group explored how green hydro­gen and Pow­er‑to‑X (PtX) solu­tions are already being imple­ment­ed – and what this could mean for Ukraine’s green recov­ery and long‑term ener­gy secu­ri­ty.

The tour start­ed in Berlin with a vis­it to Siemens Ener­gy, where par­tic­i­pants learned how hydro­gen is becom­ing a key ele­ment in trans­form­ing con­ven­tion­al ener­gy sys­tems into renew­able, decar­bonised mod­els. A fac­to­ry vis­it offered a look at Siemens’ elec­trol­yser pro­duc­tion and tur­bines already oper­at­ing on a 50% hydro­gen blend, with a roadmap towards 100% hydro­gen in the future.

In dis­cus­sions with rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Ger­man Fed­er­al For­eign Office and experts from Berlin Eco­nom­ics, the del­e­ga­tion heard about ana­lyt­i­cal work on Ukraine’s poten­tial for green hydro­gen exports and for devel­op­ing green ammo­nia and e‑fertiliser val­ue chains. One key take­away: there will not be a sin­gle “right” mod­el; dif­fer­ent regions and sec­tors will require dif­fer­ent, context‑specific solu­tions.

At Yara International’s fer­tilis­er plant near Ros­tock, the group gained insights into decar­bon­is­ing an energy‑intensive indus­try. Yara already reduces emis­sions through nitrous oxide abate­ment and renew­able elec­tric­i­ty, while prepar­ing for the intro­duc­tion of green ammo­nia. The mes­sage was clear: decar­bon­i­sa­tion is a step‑by‑step process that depends on the right pol­i­cy and mar­ket frame­works.

Fur­ther stops includ­ed thyssenk­rupp Uhde and Uniper, who pre­sent­ed one of the world’s first ammo­nia crack­er projects and the grow­ing glob­al mar­ket for green ammo­nia; CAPHENIA in Frankfurt‑Höchst, show­cas­ing a Power‑and‑Biogas‑to‑Liquid pilot plant for sus­tain­able fuels; as well as the Bavar­i­an Min­istry of Eco­nom­ic Affairs and Zen­trum Wasserstoff.Bayern (H2.B), where Bavar­i­an and Ukrain­ian stake­hold­ers exchanged on region­al hydro­gen strate­gies and busi­ness coop­er­a­tion.

For the Ukrain­ian par­tic­i­pants, the Green Hori­zons Study Tour was an intense week of learn­ing, net­work­ing and inspi­ra­tion. It high­light­ed that green hydro­gen and PtX can strength­en Ukraine’s resilience and open new eco­nom­ic path­ways – not overnight, but in the medi­um and long term. At the same time, the work on strate­gies, projects and part­ner­ships needs to start now. As one par­tic­i­pant sum­marised: “Green hydro­gen is free­dom.”