Bad Lauchstädt Energy Park near Leipzig today (April 22) said the installation of the last rotor blade for the eight Vestas wind turbines will “soon be completed,” with green hydrogen production expected to start at the end of 2025.
Set to produce 50MW of electricity, the wind farm will power 30MW of Sunfire alkaline electrolysers that will generate green hydrogen for use by TotalEnergies at its Leuna refinery to partially replace grey hydrogen use.
Read more: TotalEnergies to decarbonise German refinery with hydrogen under VNG partnership
Being developed by a consortium made up of Uniper Hydrogen, Terrawatt, VNG Gasspeicher, ONTRAS Gastransport, DBI Gastechnolohisches Institut and VNG, Bad Lauchstädt Energy Park said until the electrolysers are installed, the wind installation will feed electricity into the public power grid.
“After the electrolyser is completed, the green electricity is primarily made available directly for electrolysis and only excess capacities are fed into the grid,” the consortium said. Electrolyser deliveries are expected to begin in the second half of 2024.
Read more: Electrolyser deliveries to Bad Lauchstädt Energy Park expected in H2 2024
With the inauguration of the wind farm set to take place on June 1, 2024, Cornelia Müller-Pagel, Project Manager and Head of Green Gases at VNG, said, the wind milestone brought the consortium a “decisive step closer” to producing hydrogen
Falk Zeuner, Managing Director of Terrawatt Planning Company, added, “It is a beautiful sight for us to now see eight systems from the most modern generation from Vestas fully assembled in front of us.”
Exclusive: Uniper Hydrogen CEO discusses German FID to ‘prepare for something bigger’
© Uniper Hydrogen
Uniper Hydrogen’s CEO has told H2 View the move to take final investment decision (FID) on a 30MW German green hydrogen project was due to the opportunity to learn and prepare “for something bigger.”
In an exclusive interview with H2 View, Dr. Axel Wietfeld, CEO of Uniper Hydrogen, said the FID on the Bad Lauchstädt Energy Park project, being developed alongside Terrawatt, VNG Gasspeicher, ONTRAS Gastransport, DBI Gastechnolohisches Institut and VNG, was a “great but tough decision.”
“It was important for us to get a foot in the door to really manage our entry to market and to generate learnings to prepare for something bigger,” Wietfeld said. “That made the project super attractive for us. It was not the economics.”
Located close to the German city of Leipzig, the project plans to establish a brand new 49MW wind farm which will power green hydrogen production using 30MW of electrolysis technology supplied by Sunfire…
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