RWE and Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) have commenced trial operations of a hydrogen-compatible gas turbine with a capacity of 34MW at the Emsland gas-fired power station in Lingen, Germany.
The new turbine was officially commissioned during a ceremony attended by around 130 representatives from government, business, and media, including Lower Saxony’s Minister President Olaf Lies and Japanese Ambassador to Germany Mitsuko Shino.
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The initiative marks the first time electricity will be generated from hydrogen at this scale within a European industrial setting.
Both companies are collaborating to test the operation of the gas turbine using various mixtures of natural gas and hydrogen, including up to 100% hydrogen.
The test phase is expected to last several months, with the aim of gathering data on different operational modes and load conditions that could be useful for future flexible power stations in energy systems with significant contributions from wind and solar.
Hydrogen for the trials is produced on-site using GET H2 Nukleus electrolysers, which generate hydrogen by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen powered by renewable energy. This hydrogen is then used as fuel for the turbine during the tests.
RWE Generation CEO Nikolaus Valerius said: “What we have achieved in Lingen in partnership with Kawasaki is unique in Europe. The new turbine will generate up to ten times as much power as previous hydrogen turbines.
“The operational experience gained will be key for the deployment of even larger turbines. This is an important milestone on the way towards ensuring that this technology can reliably supply hundreds of thousands of households with electricity in the future.”
The combustion systems being trialled in Lingen are designed to operate safely and reliably across all hydrogen and natural gas blends.
Similar technology has previously been tested in smaller plants, but the Lingen project marks its first use at the 34MW scale.
Recently, RWE secured contracts to build three hydrogen-compatible gas-fired power stations in North Rhine-Westphalia after a recent auction conducted by Germany’s Federal Network Agency under the Electricity Supply Security and Capacity Act.
