The Hydrogenics electrolyzer produces "green" hydrogen using surplus renewable energy produced primarily from wind sources. The hydrogen will be fed into the natural gas grid of the city of Hamburg, thereby providing local citizens with energy which would otherwise be wasted. Power-to-Gas (P2G) applications such as this enable surplus renewable energy, in the form of hydrogen, to be stored and immediately transported via the natural gas grid to consumers. Hydrogenics’ PEM electrolysis technology represents a new, highly efficient and ultra-power-dense manner to effect Power-to-Gas.
The unit in Hamburg, with its complete system residing in a single 40-foot ISO container, stores up to 36MWh per day of renewable energy. At the core of this P2G system is a single PEM electrolyzer stack rated for 1.5 megawatts of continuous power. It is the world’s most power-dense stack for the generation of hydrogen in a volume of less than 0.5 m3. This compact footprint provides a cost-effective foundation for substantially larger systems, scalable to energy storage in the multi-megawatt and even gigawatt levels.
"Today our electrolyzers operate in over 100 countries with more than 500 active installations," said Daryl Wilson, CEO of Hydrogenics. "Hydrogenics has a pedigree for safety and reliability that goes back to 1948. Our knowledge and experience as the world’s largest commercial manufacturer of industrial-grade electrolyzers, coupled with our extensive background in PEM technology, give us the ability to bring the world’s most power-dense electrolyzer to the German market. Our customer, E.ON, is a world leader in adopting electrolysis for megawatt-scale energy storage and, since 2013, the company has commercially operated a P2G facility in Falkenhagen, Germany using Hydrogenics alkaline technology. Now, with our next generation PEM platform, E.ON is taking the clear lead in demonstrating the viability of hydrogen as the most suitable medium for multi-megawatt energy storage."
