Halle: 50Hertz and municipal utility plan power-to-heat plant with wind power +++ Wesseling: City relies entirely on hydrogen buses +++ Schwerin: Feasibility studies commissioned for two power-to-X projects in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania +++ Finland: P2X Solutions lays foundation stone for green hydrogen production plant +++ Congo: HDF plans hydrogen power plant +++ USA: Biagi Brothers order 15 fuel cell trucks from Nikola +++ DISCOUNT promotion: Your advertisement on the PtX portal
A selection of PtX topics summarized at the end of the week
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Wind farm on the overhead line between Röhrsdorf (Saxony) and Remptendorf (Thuringia). © 50Hertz / Jan Pauls
The Berlin-based transmission system operator 50Hertz Transmission GmbH and EVH GmbH, a subsidiary of the Halle municipal utility company in Saxony-Anhalt, are planning a power-to-heat (PtH) plant. According to reports, the plant will have a capacity of 40 megawatts (MW) and is scheduled to go into operation by the end of the year. 50Hertz is covering the investment costs of up to €15 million. The aim is to utilize the output of wind farms in northeastern Germany even when strong winds prevent the entire amount of electricity from being consumed or transmitted locally. In such cases, wind turbines are curtailed to protect the grid from overload. The wind farm operators receive compensation for this. In the future, a portion of this electricity will be used to supply heat to the city of Halle (Saale). Halle is reportedly 50Hertz's seventh PtH project to date; the total capacity of all contracted plants in Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and now Saxony-Anhalt exceeds 180 megawatts.
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Gunnar Ohrndorf (Managing Director of Stadtwerke Wesseling GmbH), Martina Engels-Bremer (Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board), Mayor Ralph Manzke and Marcel Frank (Managing Director of Regionalverkehr Köln GmbH) are looking forward to the new hydrogen buses. © RVK
The North Rhine-Westphalian city of Wesseling plans to completely replace its diesel-powered city buses with hydrogen-powered fuel cell buses. This will result in annual savings of 295 tons of carbon dioxide and 0,36 tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx) compared to the use of EURO VI buses. The newly integrated twelve-meter-long vehicles from the Polish manufacturer Solaris Bus & Coach SA have a range of over 350 kilometers. They can be refueled just as quickly as diesel buses and therefore require no adjustments to operational procedures. Refueling will take place at a Shell station in Wesseling, which is currently being converted and expanded for hydrogen buses. The Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs has given Regionalverkehr Köln GmbH (RVK) "comprehensive funding commitments." RVK, headquartered in Cologne, provides services in the greater Cologne and Bonn area. Stadtwerke Wesseling GmbH is a shareholder of RVK. According to Marcel Frank, Managing Director of RVK, the company has been "consistently converting its fleet to hydrogen" since 2014. Last year, RVK ordered 20 buses from Solaris with an option for another 20. The Northern Irish manufacturer Wrightbus also received a contract for 20 vehicles with an option to increase the order by a further 40 buses.
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Zukunft Grüne Gase GmbH & Co. KG has commissioned Gesellschaft für regionale Teilhabe und Klimaschutz mbH (GTK) to conduct feasibility studies for two Power-to-X projects in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The company explained that "large quantities of green electricity will be available in the future in Karlsburg (Vorpommern-Greifswald district) and Leizen (Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district) due to the construction of wind and solar farms in the region." The transformation and storage of this electricity should enable greater regional use. The studies will examine how locally generated green electricity can be stored by converting it into green gases and made available for various applications. The goal is to develop a concept for the construction and economic operation of an "energy conversion plant." GTK is primarily focusing on the production and use of green hydrogen. While this is more complex to store, distribute, and use than hydrogen derivatives such as LNG, methanol, or ammonia, the efficiency is higher due to the shorter conversion chains. “We assume that the use of hydrogen as an energy carrier will prevail in sectors that cannot be converted to electricity-based processes,” says Bernd Jeske, Managing Director of Zukunft Grüne Gase. Results are expected this spring.
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Esa Härmälä, Chairman of the Board of Directors of P2X Solutions (center), Herkko Plit, CEO of P2X Solutions (left) and Mika Lintilä, Minister of Economic Affairs (right). © P2X Solutions Oy
P2X Solutions Ltd. has laid the foundation stone for a green hydrogen and synthetic methane production plant in Harjavalta, in the Satakunta region of western Finland. According to the company, this is "Finland's first large-scale green hydrogen production plant currently under construction." A few weeks ago, the company signed a contract with Ruoppaus P. Suominen Oy from Nakkila for the installation of the 20-megawatt plant. Preparations at the site in the Harjavalta Industrial Park have been underway since summer 2022, with completion scheduled for 2024. In 2021, P2X Solutions received a grant of approximately €26 million from the Ministry of Employment and Economic Development for the plant. The project also received funding from the Climate Fund. In August 2022, the company also announced plans for a 30- to 50-megawatt green hydrogen and e-fuel production plant. Joensuu in eastern Finland is being considered as a possible location, and the energy company Savon Voima has been suggested as a cooperation partner. In September 2022, the European Commission included P2X Solutions' project for a 70-megawatt production plant for green hydrogen and synthetic methane in its list of Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI). P2X Solutions was founded in 2020 and aims to achieve an electrolysis capacity of one gigawatt by 2031.
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Hydrogène de France (HDF Energy) is reportedly planning to build a green hydrogen power plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in partnership with the Kinshasa province. According to the news portal " Afrik21," the Bordeaux-based company is exploring the possibility of constructing the plant in the south of the country. The production of green electricity for hydrogen production is to be secured through photovoltaics to ensure a constant, uninterrupted power supply, the report states. Like other cities, Kinshasa is also affected by power outages; only 44 percent of the population has access to electricity.
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Nikola sells 15 fuel cell trucks to Biagi Brothers. © Nikola Corporation
US logistics company Biagi Bros. Inc. has ordered 15 Nikola Tre fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) from US vehicle manufacturer Nikola Corporation . The FCEVs are scheduled for delivery in Ontario, California, in the fourth quarter of 2023. According to Nikola, the FCEV trucks will operate 24/7 and are expected to cover more than 100.000 miles (161.000 kilometers) per year. "These first 15 Nikola Tre FCEVs are part of Biagi Bros.' commitment to transitioning its fleet to zero emissions," said Michael Lohscheller, President and CEO of Nikola. Refueling will take place on-site at the previously announced hydrogen refueling station in Ontario and will take less than 20 minutes, with a range of 500 miles (800 kilometers) on a single tank.
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Photos
iStock / © Danil Melekhin
