Short abstract:

This study examines the impact of the sociotechnical imaginary of Germany as industrial hub in policies on hydrogen technologies, exploring its embedment in history and present societal structures. We show how this imaginary influenced the hydrogen visions over time, resulting in unsustainabilities.

Long abstract:

Counteracting climate change is one of the major challenges modern societies are confronted with. In this context, the hydrogen vision emerged as a promising solution for achieving a net-zero transformation across various sectors. Having been shaped by diverse dynamics and influenced by prevailing sociotechnical imaginaries, it stabilizes currently in multiple countries as an influential and socially performative vision.

This study conducts discourse analysis of policy documents (2006-2020) and investigates intricate ways in which the allocation of resources to the hydrogen field has been influenced by the sociotechnical imaginary of Germany as industrial hub, i.e., the conviction that the past and future of German society are tight to industrial production. This research also involves analysis of its historical forms and manifestations in the present material and institutional structures.

Our research indicates that since the formation of the German national state, an industrial consciousness has been inscribed in the social consciousness of the German society and has not diminished despite changes in economic structures. The industrial imaginary is also manifested in narratives legitimizing investments in hydrogen technologies and in the distribution of financial resources that have prioritized support of hydrogen end-use technologies within historically established industry sectors over the years, rather than supporting hydrogen generation technologies.

Given the current underdevelopment of low-carbon hydrogen generation technologies, pivotal for the hydrogen value chain’s climate impact, we discuss to what extent the imaginary of Germany as industrial hub has led to “unsustainabilities” (Markard et al., 2023) in the shape of the hydrogen vision over time.