(Haurup/Hamburg) – Energie des Nordens GmbH & Co. KG (EdN) now operates an electrolyser in Haurup (Schleswig-Holstein) with electricity from wind energy. The project in the municipality of Handewitt near Flensburg, known as “wind gas”, “uses surplus electricity from nearby wind turbines, which are otherwise often switched off at this network node when there is a lot of wind,” explains EdN co-managing director Reinhard Christiansen.
The PEM electrolyzer (Proton Exchange Membrane) uses, among other things, electricity from the nearby Ellhöft wind farm. According to Christiansen, this recently “fell out of funding” after 20 years in accordance with the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). Without the project, “we would have had to dismantle the functioning wind farm, which would have meant that it would have been lost to the energy transition.”
Electrolyser prevents wind turbines from being curtailed
Before production started, the ME 450/1400 electrolyser from H-Tec Systems GmbH took part in a field test as part of the “North German Energy Transition 4.0” (NEW 4.0) research network. 
The system, with a nominal output of one megawatt, showed that it reacts “precisely to control signals from the network operator” and can thus reduce the curtailment of wind turbines. “By using our electrolyzer as a flexible load that can be switched on, we have stabilized the network frequency and thus demonstrated another area of application for this technology,” explains Frank Zimmermann, spokesman for the management of H-Tec Systems.
Hydrogen is fed into the Gasunie and Open Grid Europe network
The regeneratively produced hydrogen is fed into the existing gas pipeline network. The German-Danish gas pipeline “Deudan” runs from the border town of Ellund to Quarnstedt, north of Hamburg. Deudan shareholders Gasunie and Open Grid Europe have laid two new connection lines, each 75 meters long, to feed the system into the grid in Haurup. There is also a hydrogen feed system with measurement and control technology as well as compressor units that raise the hydrogen to the pressure level of the transport line. The aim is to contribute to the development of a nationwide hydrogen infrastructure, says Jens Schumann, Managing Director of Gasunie Germany, “so that energy from the windy north can contribute to the decarbonization of our economy.” Hamburg-based Greenpeace Energy eG purchases the annual production volume of three million kilowatt hours of hydrogen for its approximately 30.000 “proWindgas” customers.
NEW 4.0 tests technologies with “particular energy transition benefits” in practice. According to the information, the goal is to supply Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein completely with renewable energy by 2035. Energie des Nordens GmbH & Co. KG is an association founded in 2011 of currently around 70 companies in the regional renewable energy sector in Schleswig-Holstein. The main shareholder is Greenpeace Energy eG
deep link
https://www.windgas-haurup.de/das-projekt.html
https://www.presseportal.de/pm/16698/4892222
Photo above
EdN electrolyser in Haurup / © Energie des Nordens, Andreas Oetker-Kast
Photo middle
Schematic representation of the PEM electrolyser / © H-Tec Systems GmbH
