Renewables group BayWa r.e. and its Dutch subsidiary GroenLeven have partnered with Netherlands energy network operator Alliander to build a pilot green hydrogen project powered with a 50MWp solar farm.
The companies launched the SinneWetterstof Hydrogen Pilot Project in Autumn 2020, and expect it to come online later this year.
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Willem de Vries, project manager at GroenLeven said the project will provide “valuable insights” into how electrolysers can be used to store green energy, as well as how well the system can adapt to the variable nature of a solar park’s power generation.
BayWa r.e has also signed a deal with biogas station group Orangegas, which will offtake the green hydrogen from the project and distribute it throughout its own refuelling stations in the Netherlands.
BayWa r.e’s corporate strategy manager for energy, policy and sustainability, Manfred Groh, said the pilot project will enable more renewable energy capacity to be installed across Europe
“The smart deployment of electrolysers can help reduce the need to invest in new grid connections or extensions,” he said.
“This will further enable the installation of more renewable plants in Europe. Economies of scale in solar and wind generation are crucial for lowest cost power supply for electrolysis.”
The European Union has pledged to make green hydrogen a key feature in the bloc’s decarbonisation goals, aiming to have more than 6GW of renewable hydrogen electrolysers installed by 2024 and then over 40GW by the end of the decade.
Speaking as part of the Green Hydrogen Summit last month, a number of industry players advised that data from green hydrogen pilot projects should be made available to help enable the future bankability of larger installations.