German company Stadtwerke Kiel has announced its gas-fired 192MW combined-heat-and-power (CHP) plant will operate on 100pc green hydrogen by 2035—ten years before the country’s net-zero target. The utility has signed a memorandum of understanding with the plant’s engine provider, Innio, to convert the plant’s existing engines to run on hydrogen.

The Kiel CHP plant was brought online in 2019, following the decommissioning of a coal-fired facility. At the time, the plant was lauded as a way to provide backup power to an increasingly renewables-dominated grid, while emitting 70pc less CO₂ than the previous power plant.

But as natural gas prices have surged and Germany faces increasing pressure to balance energy prices, security and decarbonisation, the utility and its engine provider have turned to green hydrogen as a potential solution.

“We need flexible backup power plants so that Kiel and Germany can be securely supplied with power—especially when the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine. There is no getting around this basic law of physics,” says Joerg Teupen, board member for technology and personnel at Stadtwerke Kiel.

“To achieve climate neutrality for this type of power plant operation, hydrogen must be readily available to us” Teupen, Stadtwerke Kiel

“To achieve climate neutrality for this type of power plant operation, hydrogen must be readily available to us. However, this is dependent on Europe having an abundance of hydrogen available over the coming years,” he adds.

“For the conversion to happen no later than 2035, policymakers need to put the correct framework in place right now,” agrees Innio’s CEO. Olaf Berlien.

Getting hydrogen to Europe

Germany aims to bring 10GW of domestic production capacity online by 2030, although a study by energy company Eon published last September suggests the country may be on track to start up only 5.6GW by that year.

The government opened its first tenders for green ammonia, methanol and green hydrogen-derived sustainable aviation fuels under the H2Global scheme last year. The scheme uses a contracts-for-difference mechanism, providing suppliers with long-term purchase agreements and offtakers with short-term sales contracts, with prices compensated by government funds.

The European Commission is set to open a similar auction to facilitate meeting its 10mn t/yr hydrogen import target by 2030, although the exact mechanism has not yet been published. The current lack of a definition for renewable hydrogen is also likely to be a stumbling block. While the last draft of the delegated acts outlining production criteria and lifecycle emissions requirements was published last month, adoption into law hinges on acceptance by the European Council and Parliament—which has already opted to extend its period of review to four months.

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Author: Polly Martin