Named Thierbach, the project will be located in the Borna region near Leipzig and have an input capacity of 100 megawatts (MW) by 2025, which will be scalable to more than 1 GW by 2030.

Phase one of the project is being supported by two “substantial” London-based investment groups – Foresight and HydrogenOne. Ineos Energy invested £25 million in HydrogenOne in July 2021.

The investment companies and HH2E have formed a consortium to develop the Thierbach project and have already approved a preliminary investment decision – initial funds will be used for detailed engineering design and the procurement of long-lead items. A final investment decision is expected in 2023, shortly before construction starts.

HH2E will build and operate the plant under a newly formed company called HH2E Werk Thierbach, serving leading players in the mobility sector and large-scale energy and industrial consumers such as the chemical industry and commercial air and road transport operators.

The plans follow HH2E’s announcement last June to develop one of Europe’s largest green hydrogen plants at Lubmin on the German Baltic coast. Together with the Swiss MET Group, HH2E plans to construct a power-to-X plant with capacity to produce about 6,000 t/y of green hydrogen in an initial phase, expandable to more than 60,000 t/y in a second phase.

Construction on the Lubmin project is scheduled to start in 2023, with a total investment of more than €200 million. Commissioning is planned for 2025. A second stage is scheduled to be commissioned in 2030. HHE2 said total investment in this project could exceed €1 billion.

HH2E’s goal is to have 4 GW of green hydrogen capacity in Germany by 2030. To support its aims, the Hamburg-based company in May 2022 agreed a financing package with Foresight and HydrogenOne, which took minority stakes in HH2E, expected to total at least €12 million.

“This financing agreement enables a massive acceleration of our development plans and a substantial portion of the €2.7 billion we expect to deploy on sites in the next 5-6 years,” said Mark Page, HH2E co-founder and board member.

Over the next few years, the emphasis will be on decarbonizing existing industrial sites, but HH2E will also develop greenfield projects. Alexander Voigt, HH2E’s co-founder and board member said the company has identified 15 other “ideal” locations in Germany for green hydrogen production.

Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist