New German Green Hydrogen Production Plant Will Support Transportation Sector

Industry Discussions Renewable Energy
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A German renewable energy company with offices worldwide has celebrated groundbreaking for a new hydrogen production plant in Wensickendorf, in the Oberhavel district of Brandenburg. ENERTRAG on October 16 said the facility will provide a foundation for regional production of green hydrogen, produced through the use of solar and wind energy.

Officials on Thursday said the state-of-the-art plant will have an electrolysis capacity of 4 MW, and will produce as much as 380 tonnes of green hydrogen annually beginning in 2026. The company said about 230 tonnes of that annual output will be reserved to supply the Heidekrautbahn (RB27) railway line between Barnim and Berlin. The company said the hydrogen produced at Wensickendorf will provide “an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels and promotes CO2-free mobility in the region.”

The ENERTRAG hydrogen plant is considered a “central component” of the Heidekrautbahn hydrogen railway joint project, the first of its kind in Germany. The project, being developed in cooperation with Niederbarnimer Eisenbahn (NEB), Kreiswerke Barnim (KWB), Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU), and the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), is designed to create a regional, climate-friendly value chain for green hydrogen in the transportation sector. Officials said the project is an important building block for CO2-free, quiet rail transport, and also will provide a model for future applications in passenger and commercial transport in the region.

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I saw no mention of cost of the hydrogen. Did I miss it?

Operating cost is low. Most of cost is financing. If govt pays for plant, no financing charges could be one route to very low cost green hydrogen. But not if electricity is charged in at competitive rates.

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Government financing doesn’t change the cost, just who pays…

DB2

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I think what he meant was: no interest charges. If you have to go to a bank to finance your venture (whatever it is), they will charge you interest. The government doesn’t have to do that because they are not-for-profit. Well, most of the time.

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Yes, in business economics your cost sheet includes financing charges. That is not only interest but also realization that asset has a limited service life. You hope sales will also generate replacement cost of your investment. Sort of like a mortgage.

When people give the cost of electricity from a source like wind or solar, the “cost” is almost entirely those financing costs. So choices on interest rates and service life are critical in arriving at a number. In chemistry we like to call this hand waving. Its mostly made up numbers.