VERBUND founds Green Hydrogen GmbH

VERBUND AG founded VERBUND Green Hydrogen GmbH in June 2023, thereby taking another important step in the development of the business and in building up a hydrogen economy. The company is managed by Olivia Schauerhuber and Hamead Ahrary, who joined in May 2021 and January 2022 respectively.

Green hydrogen plays a decisive role in achieving the climate targets and a sustainable decarbonisation of numerous applications and processes, and forms one of the three key pillars of the VERBUND strategy. VERBUND therefore created its own division in 2021 that brings together all activities relating to green hydrogen. The founding of a dedicated company is now the next logical step for accelerating the hydrogen activities.

Development of local projects, long-term import of green hydrogen

In the short and long term, the demand for green hydrogen in the target markets will be covered through different local projects for supplying industrial partners in the core markets. The demand for green hydrogen will increase massively in the long term. It can therefore be currently assumed that the demand for green hydrogen in Austria alone will amount to 0.6 million tonnes per year in 2035 and 1.8 million tonnes per year in 2040. It will not be possible to cover this through domestic production alone (Sources: own surveys, McKinsey, Austrian Hydrogen Strategy). For this reason, VERBUND is working on building up an extensive value chain, in order to import large quantities of green hydrogen from neighbouring regions in the long term. Initial agreements have already be concluded with international partners.

"We believe in a fully renewable energy mix of the future, in which green hydrogen will be an important component for decarbonising domestic industry," says Olivia Schauerhuber, Managing Director of VERBUND Green Hydrogen. Because "the future lies in intensifying the cooperation with our partners – hydrogen is a partnership business," adds Hamead Ahrary, Managing Director of VERBUND Green Hydrogen.