RWE and gas turbine maker Kawasaki are planning to build one of the world’s first 100% hydrogen-capable gas turbines on industrial scale in Lingen, Germany.
The aim is to test the conversion of hydrogen back into electricity at RWE’s Emsland gas-fired power plant.
The plant, with an output of 34MW, could become operational in mid-2024 and will be supplied with green hydrogen from a 100MW electrolyser.
Lingen will play a key role in RWE’s hydrogen strategy: as part of the GET H2 project, where the company plans to use offshore wind power to produce green hydrogen.
The Lingen electrolyser will be expanded to 300MW by 2026 and to 2GW by 2030.
The aim of the GET H2 project is to work with national and European partners to create the critical mass needed to kick-start the development of a supra-regional European hydrogen infrastructure and develop a strong European hydrogen market.
RWE plans to use two combustion systems developed by Kawasaki.
Both have already been tested in 1MW variants in a demonstration project in Kobe, Japan.
In Lingen, these technology principles would be scaled up to industrial scale for the first time.
As well as renewable electricity production, RWE said it has the know-how to produce and store green hydrogen, and also to do energy trading, which can provide the fuel to industrial customers as needed.
RWE is already taking part in over 30 hydrogen projects with partners.
RWE announced in November that it would add at least 2GW of gas-fired power plant capacity to provide flexible power.