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Energy transition in North Frisia: the hydrogen that dreams are made of

2021-01-06T06:19:55.331Z


Filling up with hydrogen produced with wind power - entrepreneurs in northern Germany are realizing this old vision of the energy transition. It is also an alternative to electromobility with batteries.


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The electrical energy from the wind turbines is converted into hydrogen on the spot in Bosbüll using electrolysis.

Photo: GP JOULE

North Frisia in late autumn.

Reußenköge, a village between Husum and the Danish border, lies in the fog.

The GP Joule company is based on an old farm. There is a lot of space, but it is not easy to park a car with a combustion engine.

The free spaces are reserved for electric vehicles.

One charging station is lined up after the next.

Hydrogen cars are parked where there is none.

Fuel for them is available at the new filling stations called “eFarm” - self-produced, regionally sold.

Here in northern Germany, hydrogen is supposed to help solve several problems at once: Its electricity-intensive production helps to use the abundant and sometimes excess wind power and to store energy.

The region becomes less dependent on imported oil.

And wind farm operators will receive a new consumer for their electricity after subsidies from the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) for feeding into the grid have expired many times at the end of 2020.

It is a model that would potentially be useful in many regions of the world.

Ove Petersen, in a light blue shirt under a blue quilted vest, is sitting in the office and looking through the window front over the flat country.

The co-founder and boss of GP Joule grew up here, the office used to be part of the family farm.

Pigs, chickens, grain, holiday apartments - a North Frisian idyll.

But when the agricultural engineer took over the farm, he rescheduled.

"The prices for grain were in the cellar, so we wanted to use our space for something with future potential," says Petersen.

"So my college friend Heinrich Gärtner and I built up a sideline by projecting solar, wind power and biogas systems."

There is still agriculture on the farm, a manager takes care of that.

Because the initial sideline became GP Joule in 2008.

Today the company has 300 employees who are spread over the locations in Stuttgart, Augsburg, Buttenwiesen in Bavaria, Toronto and Reußenköge.

160 employees work at the headquarters.

"That's why the pigs will have to give way soon," says Petersen.

"The stables become offices."

Wind turns into hydrogen

GP Joule has now made a name for itself in the scene as an energy service provider.

In 2011, in Lusatia, the company built what was then Germany's largest solar park on the waste dump of an open-cast lignite mine.

More such systems were connected to the grid around the world, along with wind farms.

GP Joule has been installing charging stations for electric cars since 2016.

In spring 2020, regional hydrogen production was added: the »eFarm«.

It is the largest facility of its kind in Germany to date.

Hydrogen is produced there from wind energy using electrolysis.

With the help of green electricity, water is split into its components hydrogen and oxygen.

The waste heat from the oxygen can be used in local heating networks.

This means that less energy is lost during conversion - experts complain about the poor efficiency in the hydrogen economy so far.

The gas itself is delivered to the two filling stations in Husum and Niebüll.

So far, very few hydrogen cars are available and these are hardly in demand on the market.

Battery electric vehicles are increasingly dominating alternative drives.

"There is always the chicken and egg problem with new mobility concepts," says Petersen.

“We're trying to deliver the eggs right away.” GP Joule bought two hydrogen buses that are now being rented out for local transport.

The fact that the wind is now driving cars in the form of hydrogen creates a "tangible benefit".

Emission-free through the Wadden Sea

About twenty companies are on board as shareholders.

Including the local shipping companies, because the ferries to Pellworm or Föhr should soon glide through the Wadden Sea without emissions.

Wind farm operators are also involved.

The project comes at the right time for wind farm operators, and not only because of the expiring EEG funding.

It offers a solution to a further, sometimes absurd problem: many wind turbines stand still when they are no longer allowed to feed electricity into the grid - because too much coal is flowing through them.

The Japanese car manufacturer Toyota once calculated how far a Toyota Mirai could go with the unused energy from stationary German wind turbines from one year.

The result: 13.9 billion kilometers.

“And while the energy is dissipating here, we are driving huge amounts of oil to North Friesland,” says Petersen.

Five hydrogen production sites are currently being built at local wind farms.

The one in Bosbüll is already in operation.

The two hydrogen filling stations were recently put into operation and initially supply the buses.

Hundreds of local companies have expressed interest in using the new energy source as well.

"Once the infrastructure is in place, more vehicles will be added," says Petersen, and becomes euphoric: "The rocket is now being ignited."

Jürgen Dohle could contribute to this.

He runs a gravel office in Viöl, fifteen kilometers from Husum.

The company has around 50 trucks, each of which covers up to 600 kilometers a day.

According to Dohle, the new infrastructure opens up opportunities.

"What is the objection to converting my entire company to emission-free operation?" It will take some time until all trucks run on hydrogen, but the first inquiries for hydrogen trucks have been made, "says Dohle.

He starts one size smaller: "The first Hyundai Nexo cars will be delivered soon." It is conceivable to install your own hydrogen fuel pumps at the depot.

It is the idea of ​​an intertwined energy system that makes people in the area enthusiastic about hydrogen.

It is not just about clean mobility, but about the sector coupling of mobility, heating and industry.

In this way, the heat that is generated by electrolysis can supply a nearby village with district heating.

The seed for a German hydrogen market?

When it comes to sector coupling, Richard Hanke-Rauschenbach pricks up his ears.

As head of the Institute for Electrical Energy Systems at the University of Hanover, the professor is an expert in hydrogen research.

"That is exactly what we need to get the entire energy system CO₂-free," he says, referring to the activities in North Frisia.

"If we succeed in using electricity from renewable sources so efficiently, then we can only say: Congratulations!" Hanke-Rauschenbach sees such projects as a first step.

He also likes the regional approach: »This is a basic requirement for us to be able to build an infrastructure across Germany.

In the long term, these hydrogen clusters must then grow together to form a hydrogen market. "

According to experts, however, green electricity will not be enough in the future to supply all of Germany with green, domestic hydrogen.

Proponents of the technology rely on hydrogen imports from countries in which wind, but above all the sun, provide more energy.

Petersen hopes that his project will serve as a model - but does not want it to be understood as a universal solution, but as a component of the energy transition.

In order to use as many regional resources as possible for the energy transition, we need to rethink all levels.

For example with the approval law, which does not yet regulate projects of this kind.

Therefore, progress is slow, although the wind turbines have long been delivering green energy with every revolution.

"The sector coupling must not only take place technically, but also administratively," says Petersen.

Politicians have at least recognized the potential of the »eFarm«.

The Ministry of Transport funded the project with eight million euros.

Federal Transport Minister Scheuer personally attended the groundbreaking ceremony in the name of sustainability.

For the 190-kilometer final section from Hamburg to Sylt, however, he did not take a hydrogen car, but the plane.

Icon: The mirror

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2021-01-06

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