German H2 project of 30 MW breaks ground, to suppply TotalEnergies

French energy group TotalEnergies (EPA:TTE) said today it will offtake green hydrogen to help decarbonise its Leuna refinery in Germany from a 30-MW electrolysis project in Bad Lauchstaedt that has just broken ground.

The consortium partners of the Bad Lauchstaedt Energy Park project, including German natural gas distribution company VNG and Uniper, simultaneously announced they have made a final investment decision and held a groundbreaking ceremony. TotalEnergies was announced as the first anchor customer for the hydrogen project.

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There will be a pipeline connection between Bad Lauchstaedt Energy Park and the Leuna refinery, which will provide the refinery with access to the future European hydrogen infrastructure and the international markets for green hydrogen. The French company aims to decarbonise all hydrogen used in its European refineries by 2030.

The 30-MW electrolyser will be built by Sunfire. Trial operation is scheduled to start in early 2025, with the pipeline expected to begin carrying green hydrogen to the refinery in the third quarter of 2025.

“It took a lot of hard work, together with funding of EUR 34 million, to get the project off the ground in September 2021, and then we encountered one or two expected and unexpected challenges,” said project lead Cornelia Mueller-Pagel, adding that there are still regulatory and framework-condition uncertainties in the project environment.

The partners noted they have faced an increase in estimated costs across the value chain from EUR 140 million to EUR 210 million.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.092)