German energy supplier EWE has unveiled plans to build a 320MW green hydrogen production plant in the city of Emden, Lower Saxony, by 2027.
The company has contracted Stuttgart-based Drees & Sommer SE, a consulting company that specialises in infrastructure, construction and real estate, with the management of the large-scale project.
The planned facility will produce up to 26,000 metric tonnes of green hydrogen per year for various industrial applications in the region, in particular for the steel industry. The fuel will mainly be produced from wind power.
In addition to the Emden project, EWE is also planning to build a 50MW electrolysis plant in Bremen.
This will be realised by the city’s municipal utility, Stadtwerke Bremen (SWB), a wholly owned subsidiary of EWE.
The consultancy firm is commissioned to handle steering of the Emden scheme, approval procedures and engineering management and has also supervised the tendering and award of the electrolyser contract.
“I am delighted that Drees & Sommer is on board with the project,” said EWE’s Kerstin Kuwan. “We can count on a reliable service provider with many years of experience in managing large-scale projects.”
Head of hydrogen & synFuels at Drees & Sommer Alexander Stubinitzky added: “The project is very complex.
“All trades have to be scaled up, and there are many interfaces that have to be cleanly organized during implementation.
“The project is extremely demanding in technical terms and with regard to organization and scheduling of time.”
The two schemes are part of Clean Hydrogen Coastline (CHC), EWE’s large-scale overall hydrogen project. It integrates generation, transport, storage and use of green hydrogen. EWE successfully applied for funding for the CHC project under the European Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) program in February 2021.
Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection Robert Habeck handed over the national funding notice for EWE’s project in Berlin in mid-July of this year. Of the €500m in funding, €350m are German federal funds and €150m have been provided by the federal state government.
The total investment amount for CHC is more than €800m.
In addition to construction of the system-enhancing production plants in Emden and Bremen, EWE is planning, as part of the CHC project, the repurposing of a gas cavern in Huntorf (Lower Saxony) for the storage of hydrogen, the construction and conversion of several pipeline sections, and the cross-sector use of green hydrogen on an industrial scale.