'Maximum efficiency': Siemens claims new green hydrogen plant can be model for Germany
German giant to build facility in Bavaria powered by renewables and using electrolysis by-products for local industry
The Siemens Smart Infrastructure unit and hydrogen specialist WUN H2 will build the plant in Wunsiedel, Bavaria, with a first-phase plan to take power from 6MW of renewable capacity and output of 900 tonnes of hydrogen after commissioning in 2021.
Industrial users near the Wunsiedel project – which will use proton-exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis to produce its hydrogen – will use the heat and oxygen generated as by-products of the process in their own operations.
Siemens claimed that makes the plan “unique” and able to achieve “maximum energy efficiency because all element flows will be utilised”.
The German industrial giant claimed the project will serve as “a model for all of Germany. It will convert the renewable energy available in this region from photovoltaics and wind power, into storable hydrogen, making it available for applications in mobility and industry.
“This is especially useful when, on sunny and windy days, more energy from renewable sources is produced than needed.”
The 900-tonne initial production target makes Wunsiedel one of the world’s largest green hydrogen plants planned to enter service in the near future, although mega-scale projects for the longer-term aim to be churning out the key energy transition fuel at the rate of hundreds of megawatts a day.
The inability of green hydrogen to scale quickly enough is a key argument used by those proposing the use of blue hydrogen from abated fossil fuels as a major early plank of the energy transition.