Two green hydrogen projects have been cancelled in Austria and Germany, amid the slower-than-expected development of the sector.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, power company Verbund and chemicals producer LAT Nitrogen said they have shelved a 60-megawatt (MW) green hydrogen and green ammonia project in Austria. The so-called Green Ammonia Linz project planned to produce 7,000 tonnes\/year of green hydrogen and integrate it into existing chemical processes for ammonia production.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite its high potential, the ramp-up of the hydrogen economy in Europe is under pressure,\u201d the two project partners say in a joint statement. \u201cThe current economic situation is slowing investments in research, production, and infrastructure expansion\u2026 Despite the project\u2019s significant progress and maturity, commercial implementation is currently not possible due to insufficient public funding commitments.\u201d<\/p>\n
The companies did not rule out restarting the project in the future \u201cunder changed economic and regulatory conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2023, the project was awarded \u20ac48.5 million ($56.7m) from the Innovation Fund.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the 53-MW HydroHub Fenne project in Saarland, Germany, has also been cancelled, a spokesperson for the lead developer Steag Iqony Group\u00a0confirmed to Kallanish<\/strong>. To be located at\u00a0Steag\u2019s energy site in V\u00f6lklingen, the project targeted production of 8,200 t\/y of green hydrogen from 2027. <\/p>\n \u201cTogether with our strong partners Quest One (MAN) and Vattenfall, we pushed the project forward with great commitment and even made upfront investments,\u201d the spokesperson says. \u201cAt the same time, it was always clear: the final investment decision would depend on the key parameters of the tender of the potential anchor customer. A hydrogen project of this size requires reliable offtake routes, an appropriate risk-sharing structure, comparable competitive conditions in France and Germany, and an economically viable framework. Under the given circumstances, these criteria were unfortunately not achievable for us.\u201d<\/p>\n The spokesperson points out that the\u00a0ramp-up of hydrogen in Germany is \u201cprogressing slowly,\u201d with high electricity prices being the \u201cmain obstacle.\u201d With some of the highest electricity prices in the world, hydrogen projects in the country\u00a0are \u201chardly competitive when relying on domestic electricity.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, the project was classified by the EU as an Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI). It had secured a grant notification of\u00a0\u20ac100m in federal and state funds, although subsidies are yet to be received.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile such funding would reduce investment costs, it would not mitigate the serious risks in the hydrogen production market,\u201d the spokesperson adds, noting that the funding could not offset economic risks related to green electricity procurement and the dependence on external stakeholders.<\/p>\n The Hydrogen Council estimates that at least 50 projects have been publicly cancelled in the past 18 months, amid high interest rates, energy costs, and delayed policy implementation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two green hydrogen projects have been cancelled in Austria and Germany, amid the slower-than-expected development of the sector.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[7907,2000,299,1824,81537,5452,142887],"class_list":{"0":"post-416817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-austria","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-germany","12":"tag-green-ammonia","13":"tag-green-hydrogen","14":"tag-project-cancellation"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115187861770716571","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}