Linde AG

Green light for green hydrogen at Energiepark Mainz

(DGAP-Media / 02.07.2015 / 14:00)

Press release

2 July 2015
Publication embargo until 2 p.m.

Green light for green hydrogen at Energiepark Mainz

Festive kick-off for energy storage project in collaboration between
Stadtwerke Mainz, Linde, Siemens and the RheinMain University of Applied
Sciences

MAINZ. With a symbolic push of the facility's start button, the world's
largest green hydrogen plant was inaugurated in Mainz today. Thereby a
lighthouse project in Germany's journey towards renewable energies was
officially kicked off after a construction period of almost one year. Malu
Dreyer, minister-president of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Eveline
Lemke, Minister of Energy and Michael Ebling, mayor of the city of Mainz,
were present at the official opening ceremony. The CEO of The Linde Group,
Dr Wolfgang Büchele, together with Siemens board member Prof. Siegfried
Russwurm, members of the board of Stadtwerke Mainz AG, Detlev Höhne and Dr
Tobias Brosze, and Prof. Detlev Reymann, president of the RheinMain
University of Applied Sciences, were on hand to officially start operations
at Energiepark Mainz. The energy park is the result of a joint
collaboration between these partners and has been designed to produce
hydrogen using electricity from environmentally sound sources of energy
such as neighbouring wind parks. Around EUR 17 million has been channelled
into the project, which is also being funded by Germany's Federal Ministry
for Economic Affairs and Energy within the framework of its
"Förderinitiative Energiespeicher" (Energy Storage Funding) initiative.

At the festive ceremony, the partner figureheads and guests from Germany's
national, state and local political circles all agreed that the energy park
and its underlying technical concept could become a key milestone in
Germany's transition to renewable energies. Already today, wind and solar
power stations have to be switched off at certain times if they produce too
much energy for the grid. This problem is set to increase over the coming
years as the renewable energy network expands. Energiepark Mainz can use
this "surplus" electricity to break water down into oxygen and hydrogen.
The resulting environmentally sound hydrogen can be stored and then used at
a later date when demand is higher. This process will enable renewable
energies to be harnessed more flexibly to dynamically meet fluctuations in
demand.

"Fuel-cell drive technology has advanced greatly and is now being launched