We "have" hydrogen to buffer us through winter in the same way we "have" batteries to buffer us through the night. The technology is ready, we're just waiting on sufficient renewable supply so that it starts making sense to build storage (instead of investing the money into, e.g. more transmission lines, or making loads more flexible). That point is most likely still ten to twenty years in the future. If we're lucky storage will get cheaper during that time, but even if it doesn't it wouldn't be a catastrophe.
No, it's not. The long-term hydrogen storage demonstrator is not even completed yet. There is essentially no electrolyzer capacity, and long-distance hydrogen pipelines are even scarcer.
Sorry, but for now, hydrogen is nowhere close to reality in Germany. That's also why it's _subsidizing_ 10GW of new natural gas generation. After signing a 15-year LNG contract with Qatar.
Linde has been storing hydrogen under ground for a long time now [1], but you can store and transport it everywhere you can store and transport methane if you’re willing to lose a few percent per month. It’s simply another cost factor.
And it’s not surprising that we don’t have a lot of electrolysis capacity given the economics I pointed out above.
