Former coal plant site in Hamburg could produce green hydrogen by 2026

The site of the closed-down coal power station Moorburg in the city state of Hamburg would lend itself to producing green hydrogen at a capacity of up to 500 megawatt (MW), a feasibility study for the state government has found. Parts of the existing power plant infrastructure offer excellent conditions for the construction of an electrolyser. The new facility could also be built at the same time as a partial dismantling of the power plant takes place and then be expanded, the report finds. The plant could start operations in 2026 and could receive funding as an Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI). The analysis also looked into other possible uses for the hard coal plant, including turning it into a biomass-heating-plant, a gas power plant or a high-temperature storage facility but found that these options were less economically viable and future proof.

Michael Westhagemann, senator for economy and innovation, said that the report was also supporting the plans of the Hamburg Green Hydrogen Hub (HGHH) electrolysis consortium consisting of Shell, Mitsubishi and Hamburger Energiewerke as well as Vattenfall which is planning to build an electrolyser with a scalable 100 MW capacity as part of IPCEI.

The Moorburg plant was one of the largest and most modern hard coal power stations in Germany until operator Vattenfall retired it in 2021 as part of the federal coal exit scheme. After the war in Ukraine broke out, Vattenfall suspended the dismantling of the plant for some weeks but hasn’t announced any plans to burn coal there again.