Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), Shell, Vattenfall and municipal company Wärme Hamburg have signed a letter of intent to plan how they can jointly produce hydrogen from wind and solar power at Vattenfall’s Moorburg power plant site in Hamburg, Germany and utilise the hydrogen in its vicinity.
In addition to the construction of a scalable electrolyser with an initial output of 100MW, the further development of the site into a so-called “Green Energy Hub” is planned. This includes the exploration of the extent to which the existing infrastructure of the Moorburg location can be used for the production of energy from renewable sources. In this context, concepts for the necessary logistics chains and storage options for hydrogen will also be considered. Subject to future investment decisions and according to the current state of planning, once the site has been cleared the production of green hydrogen is anticipated in the course of 2025.
For many years, Moorburg was the site of a gas-fired power plant operated by Hamburgische Electricitäts-Werke, and Vattenfall had been operating a coal-fired power plant here since 2015. Its commercial operation was terminated after the power plant won a bid in the auction for the nationwide coal phase-out in December 2020. A decision by the transmission system operator on the system relevance of the plant is expected in March 2021. The City of Hamburg and Vattenfall are striving to clear partial areas of the site as soon as possible for the project to produce green hydrogen and the development of a Green Energy Hub.
