The European Commission has approved a €42m ($43m) German state aid measure to support the development of Uniper’s 30MW hydrogen production project in Lower Saxony, Germany.
Project Chess will implement an electrolyser built by Uniper’s subsidiary and installed at a power plant in Huntorf.
Uniper and its project partner EWE expect the electrolyser to produce around 2,700 tonnes of green hydrogen per year in its first phase.
The region’s abundant wind resources will be used to power the electrolyser, whilst the produced hydrogen could be transported to local industrial customers via nearby gas pipelines or stored in salt caverns.
The project, which could be scaled up to 300MW in the future, is scheduled to be completed by 2027.
In an online statement, the European Commission said it was “necessary and appropriate” to facilitate the production of renewable hydrogen.
Additionally, the Commission considered the fact that Uniper could share knowledge gained from the Chess project with other industry stakeholders.
“The beneficiary will disseminate to other market players the knowledge obtained as a result of the Chess project, which will further facilitate the roll-out of the relevant technology,” it said.
Furthermore, the initiative aligned with key EU policy goals, such as the Hydrogen Strategy and REPowerEU Plan.
Last November, Uniper revealed it would delay its goal of investing €8bn ($8.7bn) into green energies by 2030 due to “sluggish” hydrogen progress.
Read more:Uniper delays €8bn green energy investment target amid slow hydrogen progress
Uniper goes underground: Storing hydrogen in salt caverns
Uniper has had a busy summer. Aside from closing the UK’s last coal-fired power plant, the German state-owned energy firm has also been making steps that could guide its future, cleaner energy business
In August, the company opened its pilot underground hydrogen storage cavern in Krummhörn, Germany, which Doug Waters, Managing Director of Uniper Energy Storage, told H2 View is unique in its focus.
“Our concept is to test storing hydrogen salt caverns, and whilst that’s been done in a number of places before, we’re looking at it from a perspective of how quickly we can move the hydrogen in and out, and what the quality is when we get it back,” he said.
The Hydrogen Pilot Cavern (HPC) project is trialling the storage of hydrogen at an existing wellhead, which belongs to a storage site in Lower Saxony where natural gas was stored until 2017. Hydrogen will be stored at a maximum pressure of over 200 bar giving a capacity of almost 500,000Nm3– around 45 tonnes.
Continue reading here.
