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Huntorf Green Hydrogen Hub from EWE & Uniper Draws Interest From Politicians

By May 13, 2021 4   min read  (741 words)

May 13, 2021 |

Fuel cells works, hydrogen, green hydrogen, Huntorf

The hydrogen hub planned by EWE and Uniper in Huntorf has also attracted the interest of federal politicians: On Monday, Dr. Stefan Kaufmann MdB, Innovation Officer “Green Hydrogen” at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, went on-site to get an idea of the plans of both companies.

Kaufmann accepted the invitation of Lower Saxony’s Science Minister Björn Thümler to visit selected sites in Lower Saxony in the field of green hydrogen production and storage. EWE CEO Stefan Dohler and Uniper COO David Bryson explained their plans to the two politicians in Huntorf.

Stefan Kaufmann, Innovation Commissioner for Green Hydrogen, is confident: “Green hydrogen is the gamechanger for a climate-friendly energy supply of tomorrow. Germany has a unique opportunity to become a thought leader and pioneer for green hydrogen solutions. We can become a global technology supplier. To do this, we now need to quickly bring the enormous knowledge from science into practice. That’s what makes projects like the one in Huntorf so important. The hydrogen hub shows: Green hydrogen is feasible, the value chains work. This is ensured by the excellent expertise and innovative strength of the partners involved. This is how energy transition works!”

Lower Saxony’s Minister for Science and Culture Björn Thümler agrees: “Green hydrogen is an indispensable building block for the energy transition. That’s why we are funding five innovative research projects across Lower Saxony with a total of six million euros. Here in Huntorf, the DLR Institute for Networked Energy Systems and Clausthal University of Technology are now using the compressed air storage power plant to investigate the potential of using green hydrogen in thermal processes.”

EWE and Uniper had recently announced their intention to establish a hydrogen hub in Huntorf, Lower Saxony. Both companies have already signed a corresponding contract. Accordingly, they plan to generate hydrogen in Huntorf using renewable energy (wind power), store it there and create transport facilities to make it available to industry and the mobility sector. The cooperation between the two companies will take place under the name CHESS (Compressed Hydrogen Energy Storage Solution).
About EWE

EWE is an innovative service provider active in the business areas of energy, telecommunications and information technology. With over 8,800 employees and sales of around EUR 5.7 billion in 2019, EWE is one of the largest utility companies in Germany. The company, based in Oldenburg, Lower Saxony, is primarily owned by the local government. It provides electricity to around 1.4 million customers in northwest Germany, Brandenburg and on the island of Rügen, as well as parts of Poland, and supplies natural gas to almost 0.7 million customers. It also provides approximately 0.7 million customers with telecommunications services. To achieve this, the various companies in the EWE Group operate around 210,000 kilometres of electricity grid, natural gas grid and telecommunications networks. To provide comprehensive fibre-optic expansion in the region, EWE and Telekom Deutschland founded the company Glasfaser Nordwest, which will invest EUR 2 billion in fibre-optic expansion in the northwest over the next ten years. www.ewe.com

About Uniper

Uniper is an international energy company with around 12,000 employees in more than 40 countries. The company plans to make its power generation CO2-neutral in Europe by 2035. With about 35 GW of installed generation capacity, Uniper is among the largest global power generators. Its main activities include power generation in Europe and Russia as well as global energy trading, including a diversified gas portfolio that makes Uniper one of Europe’s leading gas companies. In 2020, Uniper had a gas turnover of more than 220 bcm. Uniper is also a reliable partner for municipalities, public utilities, and industrial companies for developing and implementing innovative, CO2-reducing solutions on their way to decarbonizing their activities. As a pioneer in the field of hydrogen, Uniper is active worldwide along the entire value chain and is implementing projects to make hydrogen usable as a mainstay of energy supply.

The company is headquartered in Düsseldorf and currently the third-largest listed German utility. Together with its main shareholder Fortum, Uniper is also the third-largest producer of CO2-free energy in Europe.

Photo: Informing themselves about the planned hydrogen hub in Huntorf Lower Saxony’s Science Minister Björn Thümler and Dr. Stefan Kaufmann, Innovation Officer “Green Hydrogen” at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Here with EWE CEO Stefan Dohler and Uniper COO David Bryson (from left).

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