Germany's seven largest hydrogen projects in the area of production and infrastructure

In the Clean Hydrogen Coastline project, companies around the Oldenburg energy supplier EWE are planning a "Hydrogen Center Northwest" (Source: EWE AG)

According to Strategy&'s Hydrogen Readiness Index, there are at least 120 hydrogen projects in Germany that are in planning, under construction or in operation. Below we provide an overview of seven important hydrogen projects that are expected to reach new milestones in 2024. They deal with hydrogen production in Germany and the development of an H₂ infrastructure that will connect German and European cities. Some of the infrastructure projects are part of the European Hydrogen Backbone (EHB) and thus support the European hydrogen ramp-up. They also serve as a global model and, if successfully implemented, could serve as blueprints for similar projects worldwide.

The Franco-German infrastructure project RHYn Interco will connect South Baden and the Upper Rhine with French and international hydrogen production plants. (Source: Badenova Netze GmbH)

#1: Clean Hydrogen Coastline (> 320 MW by 2026)

The Clean Hydrogen Coastline project aims to create a "Hydrogen Center Northwest". Companies associated with the Oldenburg-based energy supplier EWE are involved in this major project.

Clean Hydrogen Coastline consists of a total of nine sub-projects covering the areas of production, transportation, storage and application:

1) H2-Allianz Osnabrück - A hydrogen cooperation in the Osnabrück economic region

2) Huntorf storage facility - Demand-oriented supply thanks to deep underground storage. At the Huntorf site, EWE plans to convert a salt cavern in which natural gas has been stored to hydrogen.

3) HyCux - complete solution for green hydrogen in the maritime sector: the first hydrogen-powered ships are due to set sail from Cuxhaven in the future. A 2 MW electrolyzer is being built in the port area for this purpose.

4) IPCEI Elektrolyse Ostfriesland - Hydrogen production on a power plant scale with large-scale electrolysers

5) HyCAVmobil - pioneering project for large-scale H₂ storage systems

6) HyBit - the green heart of steel production: an electrolysis plant is being built in Bremen to produce green hydrogen from 2024

7) Electrolysis Bremen - growing hydrogen production capacities: The 50 MW electrolyzer is to become the second production plant for green hydrogen at the Mittelsbüren site.

8) HyFri - emission-free public transport in the district of Friesland: Five hydrogen buses are to transport people around the district.

9) VWG Oldenburg - Oldenburg's public transport system has hydrogen in its tank: Verkehr und Wasser GmbH (VWG) plans to introduce four hydrogen buses into its regular service.

In the flow - making hydrogen happen project, the three TSOs Gascade, Ontras and Terranets BW want to provide a 1,100 km long hydrogen network. (Source: GASCADE Gastransport GmbH/ flow - making hydrogen happen)

#2: RHYn Interco (stage 1 until 2028, stage 2 until 2035)

The infrastructure project of the Baden-Württemberg transmission system operators (TSOs) Badenova Netze, Terranets BW and the French company GRTgaz aims to create a cross-border connection across the Rhine.

The project name "RHYn" is the abbreviation for Rhine HYdrogen Network and "Interco" stands for interconnection, which means "mutual connection".

The majority of the pipelines involved in the project will be converted from natural gas to hydrogen. The special feature of RHYn Interco is that the first potential customers for the hydrogen already exist in the form of Freiburg University Hospital and Cerdia Freiburg.

Two stages are planned to achieve its goals:

Stage 1 from 2028: Conversion of existing pipelines and connection to France

Stage 2 from 2035: Expansion towards Offenburg

The Bad Lauchstädt Energy Park is a joint project in which a hydrogen value chain is being modeled for the first time in a very small space. (Source: Bad Lauchstädt Energy Park)

#3: flow - making hydrogen happen (from 2025)

The flow - making hydrogen happen project, which was launched in December 2022, is also an infrastructure project. The three TSOs Gascade, Ontras and Terranets BW want to provide a 1,100 km long hydrogen network by 2025 as part of the project through conversion and new construction.

The project participants want to use the pipeline network to link European hydrogen markets and thus enable industry to obtain large quantities of hydrogen. According to the project operators, this makes the project one of the most important building blocks for the European hydrogen ramp-up.

The hydrogen network is to be connected to the IPCEI projects doing hydrogen and Green Octopus Mitteldeutschland as well as the projects Hydrogen for Baden-Württemberg, HyPipe Bavaria and MosaHYc. A connection to the cavern storage facilities in Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt and Hesse is also possible. Extensions to Bavaria, Austria, Switzerland, France, the Czech Republic, Poland, Denmark and the north-west are also conceivable.

GET H2 Nukleus is a sub-project of the GET H2 hydrogen initiative, which aims at the large-scale production of hydrogen and the construction of 130 km of infrastructure between Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. (Source: RWE/GET H2)

#4: Bad Lauchstädt Energy Park (30 MW by 2025)

Uniper, FNB Ontras, VNG, the DVGW research institute DBI and the planning company Terrawatt have joined forces to develop the Bad Lauchstädt energy park. The "real laboratory" of the energy transition is to model a hydrogen value chain in a very small space for the first time. At 30 MW, the planned electrolysis capacity of the joint project is significantly lower than that of the other projects. For example, the green hydrogen will be produced using renewable electricity from the nearby wind farm.

The hydrogen produced in the energy park will be stored in a specially constructed salt cavern. From there, the energy carrier is to be fed into the hydrogen network of the chemical industry based in central Germany via a converted gas pipeline and used for urban mobility solutions in the future.

In the IPCEI joint project doing hydrogen, companies from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Berlin, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt are linking their projects to establish an "East German hydrogen hub" by 2026. (Source: ONTRAS Gastransport GmbH)

#5: GET H2 Nucleus (> 300 MW by 2027)

The GET H2 initiative includes bp, Evonik, Nowega, OGE, Thyssengas and RWE. Together, the companies want to build a publicly accessible hydrogen infrastructure.

The GET H2 Nukleus sub-project comprises the construction of a 130 km pipeline network from Lingen to Gelsenkirchen. It is to be the first H₂ network with non-discriminatory access and transparent prices. From 2030, the refinery and electrolysis plant in Lingen, the Gronau-Epe cavern storage facility, the Duisburg steelworks, the Marl chemical park, the Ruhr ÖL refinery in Gelsenkirchen and the Salzgitter steelworks are to be connected.

Some of the projects are earmarked for funding as IPCEI (Important Project of Common European Interest).

The initiative plans to install a total capacity of 10 GW of electrolysis capacity at offshore stations in the North Sea by 2035. (Source: AquaVentus Förderverein e. V. / Jakob Martens Studios)

#6: doing hydrogen (2026-2027)

Companies from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Berlin, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt want to link their hydrogen projects in order to establish an "East German hydrogen hub" by 2026.

To this end, they have launched the joint project doing hydrogen and submitted an IPCEI funding application.

Doing hydrogen is made up of the following sub-projects:

HyTechHafen Rostock
Electrolysis corridor East Germany
Green hydrogen from Rostock: 100 MW electrolyzer
LHyVE (Leipzig Hydrogen Value chain for Europe/Green hydrogen ring for the Leipzig region)
Future Network Northwest
Concrete Chemicals Scale-up
doing hydrogen transport network (connection to industrial customers in Eisenhüttenstadt)

#7: AquaVentus (10 GW by 2035)

The AquaVentus Förderverein e.V. consists of nine research institutions and organizations. Together, they are planning to install an electrolysis capacity of 10 GW at offshore stations in the North Sea by 2035 as part of the AquaSector project. This would correspond to an annual hydrogen volume of around one million tons. In order to achieve this target, the auctions for the 1 GW offshore electrolysis in the North Sea are to begin in 2024. The electrolysis stations are planned between Helgoland and the Dogger Bank in the northwest.

The AquaVentus project family also includes:

the AquaCampus research area: which aims to develop surface and underwater technologies and the use of high-performance drones for offshore use under real conditions.
the European "hydrogen backbone" of the North Sea AquaDuctus: an "open access" hydrogen pipeline on a GW scale that can transport large quantities of renewable energy at sea to the mainland and feed it into the infrastructure being built on land.
the climate-neutral shipping project AquaNavi

You can find up-to-date information on these and many other hydrogen projects via this interactive project map.

Would you like to find out more about the development of the hydrogen infrastructure and the government's plans? Are you wondering whether the core network is correctly dimensioned and whether distribution networks and storage have been sufficiently taken into account?

These and other questions will be addressed and answered by top-class speakers at the H₂ Summit.

The one-day congress is organized by figawa and Vulkan Verlag in cooperation with Messe Düsseldorf and will take place as part of wire + Tube 2024. Visit us on April 16, 2024 in the congress area of Hall 1 (South Entrance).