Green hydrogen is the key technology for the energy transition

VERBUND Green Hydrogen GmbH was founded in June 2023 to further advance hydrogen activities; the principle goal is to cover the increasing demand for competitive, green hydrogen in order to secure industrial centres.

VERBUND thinking about hydrogen in the short and long term

In the short term, the focus is on the expansion of local hydrogen production, in particular for the decarbonisation of energy-intensive industry in the core markets of VERBUND. To this end, VERBUND is developing partnership-based projects aimed at generating hydrogen for direct use at customers, for an immediate and reliable supply of green hydrogen.

• As part of the project "Green Ammonia Linz", VERBUND and LAT Nitrogen are planning a 60 MW electrolysis plant in Linz for the sustainable production of green ammonia.

• The planned large-scale electrolysis plant "Pannonian Green Hydrogen", which has an output of 60 to 300 megawatts, should be able to produce up to 40,000 tonnes of green hydrogen a year once fully up and running.

• In the research project "USS 2023", VERBUND is working with partners under the lead of RAG to investigate how existing storage structures can be used for the seasonal storage of solar energy in the form of hydrogen.

The sharp rise in demand cannot be covered by domestic production alone in the long term. 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.

 

VERBUND advances business development from the demand side

The work done by VERBUND within import alliances in Austria and Bavaria plays an important role in this. The alliances include players from along the entire value chain: energy companies, infrastructure operators and hydrogen customers, who together represent a significant share of the demand in the respective country or state/province. The goal of the import alliances is to enable hydrogen imports by 2030, so that the significantly rising demand in Austria and Bavaria can be covered reliably and competitively in the long term. The work therefore focuses on the structured and orchestrated start-up of the hydrogen import industry and solving what is know as the “chicken and egg problem”, which is the central challenge in building up the hydrogen industry.

 

VERBUND is also establishing and expanding international partnerships for the development of large-scale hydrogen production for diversified imports. Corresponding agreements have already been signed.

• Signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with ACWA Power to evaluate the development of a project for large-scale hydrogen imports to the VERBUND target markets.

• Conclusion of a Joint Study Agreement with Masdar to assess the large-scale generation of green hydrogen in Spain.