Green hydrogen hub for rural northern Germany
Jonathan Spencer Jones
Posted on: 28 January 2022
The Green H2-Hub Haren project aims to implement a decentralised hydrogen facility primarily for the mobility sector.
The Green H2-Hub Haren project aims to implement a decentralised hydrogen facility primarily for the local mobility sector.
The H2-Hub, which is being developed as an R&D demonstration, will comprise two 1MW electrolysis systems to be powered with the excess electricity from the newly completed Fehndorf-Lindloh community wind farm in the Lower Saxony town of Haren.
The hydrogen production will then be stored for applications in rural areas, and in particular for use in agricultural machinery and transport vehicles in a parallel project taking place in the town.
Haren has set itself the goal of becoming self-sufficient with green energy. The Fehndorf-Lindloh wind farm comprised of 16 4.2MW turbines will connect to 2MW/4MWh lithium-ion batteries for storage of the wind power during peak production periods for its subsequent conversion to hydrogen.
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The hydrogen will then be delivered via a natural gas feed-in and hydrogen fuelling station, which are to be constructed to grow its use and support decarbonisation in the heating and transport sectors among others.
“The use of hydrogen is an important key to decarbonisation, not only in mobility but also in agriculture,” says Frank Zimmermann, CEO of H-TEC Systems, which is supplying its ME450/1400 PEM electrolysers to the project.
“The project in Haren provides a valuable contribution to this and is an important step towards an independent energy supply for the region,”
The H2Agrar initiative also taking place in Haren is aiming to develop a hydrogen infrastructure around mobility in the agricultural sector. Currently, over 8% of the greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture in Germany are from agricultural transport and with the potential to eliminate these they are considered an important element in reducing the sector’s overall emissions.
Among other aspects, H2Agrar aims to develop and test hydrogen tractors.
The H2-Hub is being led by the electricity and gas distribution network operator Westnetz. The intention is to develop a model that can be implemented in other rural locations in the region.
The energy system including the hydrogen electrolysers is scheduled to go into operation in the summer of 2022.
