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 âan environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels and promotes CO2-free mobility in the region.â
The ENERTRAG hydrogen plant is considered a âcentral componentâ 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.
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.
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 doesnât have to do that because they are not-for-profit. Well, most of the time.
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 âcostâ 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.
So, it speaks to the viability of hydrogen projects even with subsidies. Another example â last year Cleveland-Cliffs was offered half a billion dollars by the previous administration for a steel/hydrogen project and declined.
And from 2023âŚ
âŚseen as ideal candidates for green hydrogen, such as steelmaking and long-distance transportation, have found that transition to the low-carbon fuel looks prohibitively expensiveâŚ
Only about a fifth of planned hydrogen projects across the European Union are likely to come online by the end of the decade, he said. That equates to roughly 12 GW of production capacity against an EU target of 40 GWâŚ
âWhatâs missing is the demand. There are 400 million euros ($464.2 million) of subsidies for hydrogen in Spain and Portugal, but we need someone to buy the hydrogen.â
I think is fair to say hydrogen fueled vehicles are experimental for now. High cost of hydrogen is a major limitation. But recent claim of 30% improvement is electrolysis hydrogen is interesting.
Also there are reports of natural hydrogen sources that might be as economical as natural gasâif abundant enough and when developed.
Hydrogen remains a clean energy source that can be transportedâif only the cost issues can be resolved. Commercial adoption at current prices seems unlikely unless required by govt.
Europe is going ahead with hydrogen and so are other countries. Your references are old and not on topic. You are just nit-picking about Portugal.
The German governing coalition has agreed to build 2GW of new hydrogen-fired power plants and at least 8GW of new hydrogen-ready gas-fired power plants, according to the minutes of a coalition committee meeting seen by Hydrogen Insight.
We recognize that battery electric is not suitable for all application. In those casesâsuch as jet aircraftâhydrogen may be a reasonable but expensive alternative. Synthetic green fuels may work too. Also expensive but can work in existing engines.
An area still being explored, but necessary if we are serious about climate change.