An energy revolution with green hydrogen

The HanseWerk Group aims to cover the entire value chain in the H2 Sector

The town of Quickborn in the suburbs of Hamburg is home to another company that is actively involved in the energy transition. Via its power grids, the HanseWerk Group transmits the renewable energy needed to produce green hydrogen to H2 producers in Schleswig-Holstein. Through its newly founded company HAzwei GmbH, the Group also aims to play a direct role in the market as a hydrogen producer. 

"We're aiming to provide the entire value chain for the customer in the H2 sector - from green power production and generation, to filling stations and grids, to hydrogen for industrial applications and, in the medium to long term, also heat generation," explains project manager Hauke Siemens. The company's goal is to decarbonise the economy in areas where the energy transition has - without green hydrogen - currently reaches its limits.

As a North Germany, having the opportunity to be actively involved in the energy transition fills Hauke Siemens with a special motivation: "I previously worked as a stock analyst and studied the European energy sector. However, I lacked a sense of adding value to society through my work." 

In April 2021, he was given the opportunity to do just that by the HanseWerk Group. Since then he has promoted the Group's activities in the hydrogen sector through his role as a key link between industry, trade associations and policy-makers. Here too, a paradigm shift has taken place in recent years, with the result that hydrogen technology has achieved even greater prominence and been scaled up accordingly. Several large joint projects, such as the North German Real Laboratory (NRL), were already underway when he joined the company, and new initiatives were frequently added over the following months. 

"Hydrogen will play a key role in the energy system. H2 provides a decisive advantage in terms of sector coupling since it can be used to defossilise processes in practically every sector - in industry, mobility, heat generation." Besides its flexibility, Hauke Siemens emphasises the unique storage capacity of the element H2 with a view to the future. "If we're talking about the years from 2045 to 2050, we will need renewables with sufficient capacity to produce surplus electricity in the windy and sunny months, which we can convert into hydrogen, store temporarily and transform into carbon-neutral electricity in converted gas-fired power plants during the darker and less windy periods. In the new energy system, we will need large-scale storage solutions for hydrogen." 

According to Hauke Siemens, the road there will be rocky and cost-intensive, but there is no alternative to hydrogen technology per se - even if peope repeatedly question this abundant element's efficiency in terms of ambitious targets set for the energy transition. "Efficiency is of course important for a company, but it's not the main driver for green hydrogen," explains Hauke Siemens. "In my view, the primary factor in terms of the overall concept is that, ultimately, the economic costs should remain as low as possible. We will need a lot of hydrogen in the future. In principle, H2 should be used in areas where the conversion losses can be kept to a minimum. However, especially in the ramp-up phase, I wouldn't reduce it to purely a question of efficiency, because a pioneering approach is also important and it makes sense to develop pilot plants, for example, to test the technical infrastructure." 

The HanseWerk Group has recognised the overall systemic potential of green hydrogen and is initially focusing on the industrial and mobility sectors. "Industry is dependent on hydrogen in many ways. We're talking about no-regret applications here," explains Hauke Siemens. "Ammonia production is a good example - this requires large amounts of hydrogen as a chemical building block. This process is still grey at the moment, but most become green in the future. That's why, as a company, we can already invest in these areas with greater certainty."

The second focal point is mobility. The HanseWerk Group has acquired a stake in Hypion GmbH, which specialises in hydrogen filling station infrastructure for heavy-duty transport. "We also plan to provide the hydrogen for the H2 filling stations in the long term when our electrolysers are up and running." To this end, the HanseWerk Group is working to secure up-front sales of its green hydrogen: "At the moment, our projects are always in partnership with the customers, who purchases the hydrogen in advance. This ensures we can sell the entire production yield from the planned electrolysers."

The HanseWerk Group is basing its green-hydrogen targets on the North Germany hydrogen strategy, which stipulates that around five gigawatts of electrolysis capacity should be online by 2030. "Measured against the projections, we're currently planning to provide about one tenth of this capacity through our company. This should also be the minimum goal. In my experience, the H2 stakeholders in our state are highly motivated to achieve these goals and to up the pace. Together with the policy-makers and our communities, we are making the energy transition a reality in Schleswig-Holstein - and beyond."