World’s "first large-scale industrial power-to-gas facility" planned in northern Germany

A new project in northern Germany aims at establishing "the world’s first" power-to-gas facility for producing hydrogen with renewable energy sources at an industrial scale. The project led by Swedish energy company Vattenfall, local renewable power producer ARGE Netz and heavy duty vehicle producer MAN, which is owned by carmaker Volkswagen, is meant to produce hydrogen to power buses, trucks and ships, and to “create a power-to-gas-hub for cross-sectoral decarbonisation in northern Germany” near the town of Brunsbüttel, the companies say. MAN Energy Solutions CEO Uwe Lauber said the project would provide green gas for the entire German gas grid and help consolidate the country’s leading position on the budding hydrogen and synthetic fuel market. “With the possibility of an LNG terminal opening in Brunsbüttel in the future, this opens up a perspective for refining imported gas by adding green synthetic gas,” Lauber added.

Power-to-gas technology is seen as a cornerstone of Germany’s future energy system, as it can be used to make electricity produced with renewable energy sources storable for later use, for example in vehicles. The procedure still comes with considerable energy losses, but a recent study by TU Munich found that it could already be operated at a profit.