Dr. Stefan Kaufmann

Job Title: Senior Advisor
Company: Horvath & Partner
Country: Germany

Dr. Stefan Kaufmann, who was born in 1969, served as Innovation Commissioner for Green
Hydrogen at the German Ministry of Education and Research from June 2020 to July 2022.
The position was created by the German Cabinet on June 10, 2020, as part of its national
hydrogen strategy. In this position, he was a regular guest at the State Secretaries' Committee
for Hydrogen of the Participating Ministries as well as the National Hydrogen Council.
Since August 2022 Dr Kaufmann is working as a Senior Adviser. In one of his mandates he
was Hydrogen Executive Adviser to the thyssenkrupp board regarding all cross-business
hydrogen activities and projects and represent the company nationally and internationally in
all matters related to hydrogen. Other companies he is working for are the global management
consultancies Horvath and Drees & Sommer, the Canadian hydrogen production company
World Energy GH2 and the German Startup Turn2X.
Prior to his appointment as Innovation Commissioner for Green Hydrogen, the fully qualified
lawyer served as chair of the Study Commission 'Vocational Training in the Digital Work
Environment' and CDU/CSU spokesperson on the Committee on Education, Research and
Technology Assessment of the German Bundestag. Dr Kaufmann has been a directly elected
Member of the Bundestag for his Stuttgart constituency from 2009 to 2021. He has been back
in the Bundestag from January 2024 to March 2025 - as the successor to the late Dr Wolfgang
Schaeuble.

May 07, 2025From the SoutH2Corridor to the Hydrogen Core Grid - Fast Lane or Detour for a Green Industry?

Europe’s Largest & Most International Exhibition for Batteries & Energy Storage Systems

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Forum

From the SoutH2Corridor to the Hydrogen Core Grid - Fast Lane or Detour for a Green Industry?

Wednesday, May 07, 2025, 02:15 pm - 03:45 pm

Messe München Hall B2, Booth B2.550

Although Europe already produced 47% of its energy from renewable sources last year according to the latest Commissions state of the Energy Union report in 2024, 18% of gas imports still come from Russia. And pressure rises from Washington to compensate parts of Europe's trade deficit by increasing LNG exports of fracking gas. One of Europes answers is the "SoutH2Corridor" project. The planned hydrogen corridor will connect the producer countries of North Africa, Tunisia and Algeria with future industry consumers in Italy, Austria and southern Germany via a 3300 km pipeline by 2030. The planned capacity: more than 4 million tons of hydrogen per year can be supplied to industries in southern Germany with green molecules.What does this mean in terms of specific energy costs? Is the supply from North Africa sufficient to meet the needs of energy-intensive industries in southern Germany and Europe's industrial heartland Benelux at an attractive price? And what role can low-carbon hydrogen play in order to defossilize small and medium-sized industry?These are some oft the key questions in this political panel: From the SoutH2 corridor to the hydrogen core grid - fast lane or detour for a net zero industry?