Costs for customers:

In the beginning of the change to the hydrogen economy every gas appliance has to be modified by changing its heaters.

Fuel cell Heaters:

If the price-development of fuel cell heaters develop as estimated they will be cheaper than nowadays heaters. Since the production of electricity by hydrogen is less expensive, it will be profitable to switch to fuel cell heaters even if one has the latest heater model.

Fuel cell cars:

Fuel cell cars are considered not to be more expensive than today’s cars. As Fuel cells use the cheaper hydrogen instead of gas, the change to a fuel cell car can be regarded as quite profitable after some time.

Costs for energy providers:

These costs are usually included in the calculations of the hydrogen price, they consist of the following contents.

During the transition phase several updates will have to be applied to gas stations so they can supply cars with hydrogen. In the long term, however, a network of hydrogen-gas-stations is planned to be created. A station will only have up to two tanks, each providing hydrogen (instead of four tanks for Diesel, gasoline, Super, Super Plus), but in reality it is considered to be more complicated and at least in the beginning more expensive.

Another important issue is the improvement and customization of the pipeline network. Dr. Karl-Heinz Tetzlaff expects about 10 Billion € of investments for Germany. In comparison, E-On (a German energy provider) is planning to spend about 20 Billion € on the maintanance of the actual German energy network and another 20 Billion € on new power stations and enhancements to the network.

And not to forget, Steam-Reformers have to be built. The costs can be determined with common calculations of the chemical industry. They are approximately in the range of 25 Billion € which is based on a scenario. More details can be found here later on.