Green hydrogen – Heide refinery cancels pioneering project.
The Heide oil refinery had decided to rely on green hydrogen. Three years after the start of the lighthouse project, the central component of “West Coast 100” has now been completed prematurely. The electrolysis plant will not be built.
by Carsten Rauterberg
The three companies Raffinerie Heide, Ørsted Germany and Hynamics Germany will not build a so-called electrolyzer. The company alliance announced this on Thursday. More than three years ago they joined forces to form “H2 Westend GmbH” to build a plant for the production of green hydrogen as part of the “Reallabor West Coast 100” project. This was to be built on the site of the industrial company in Hemmingstedt ( Dithmarschen district ). According to a press release from the three companies, the main reason for the now announced decision against the 30 megawatt system is the high construction costs.
Showcase project for the energy transition
The project has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics since 2020 as part of the “Real Laboratories of the Energy Transition” program with a total of 36 million euros. Peter Altmeier (CDU), who was Federal Minister of Economics at the time, presented the funding decision in Berlin. According to a company spokesman from H2 Westend GmbH, around one million euros of the total amount was spent. The state government had supported the project – it was considered one of the flagship projects as part of the nationwide hydrogen strategy.
No economics
The production of green hydrogen makes no sense, especially because of the high investment costs and the associated economic risks, according to the press release. Despite the funding, long-term operation of the plant to produce green hydrogen on an industrial scale is not economically worthwhile, according to the investor consortium.
Environment Minister Goldschmidt continues to believe in the idea
“Today a smaller component of a project in Heide was canceled,” summed up Environment Minister Tobias Goldschmidt (Greens) on Thursday. But the “large electrolyzer project” called “Hyscale 100” continues. The state government is fully behind it. Hyscale 100 is more than three times larger than West Coast 100 and is considered a project for the entire region. Hyscale 100 is also still in the planning phase.
The managing director of the Heide refinery, Roland Kühl, told NDR Schleswig-Holstein that they wanted to continue to use the knowledge gained as part of the research project. The goal is still to decarbonize the refinery – the development of a green hydrogen economy on the west coast plays a major role in this.
The offshore wind company Ørsted from Denmark also wanted to participate in the plant in Heide. Germany Managing Director Jörg Kubitza said that a project like this relies on economic viability and unfortunately that is not the case. The costs have to be right and a market has to be created. Neither is the case, Kubitza continues. The third partner in the consortium was Hynamics Germany, the subsidiary of the French energy supplier EDF, Electricite De France.
Disappointment in the region
Stadtwerke Heide wanted to participate as a regional energy supplier in the West Coast 100 project – with the sub-project “Green Heating”. Initially, green hydrogen was to be mixed with natural gas in a district in Heide. The green hydrogen should be routed via pipeline from the Heide refinery to the municipal utilities and then to the adjacent residential area.
Supervisory Board: “Hydrogen is no further ahead than it was three years ago”
The decision to end the electrolysis plant now also means the end of the municipal utility’s green heating project, said Andreas Hein, chairman of the supervisory board of Stadtwerke Heide. He was visibly disappointed: “I’m angry at the federal government because in 2020 the federal government’s hydrogen strategy was implemented with a total of seven billion euros in funding to promote projects like the one here in Heide. The legal framework for projects Implementation of this kind does not exist, Hein continued. What makes him particularly angry is that, in principle, the issue of green hydrogen is no further along than it was three years ago.
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Green hydrogen – Heide refinery cancels pioneering project. source
