EWE launches first-ever market survey on green hydrogen demand

Oldenburg, 19 February 2024. One of the key focus areas of EWE's large-scale storage and hydro-gen business division is the upstream sector (hydrogen production). The company is the first in Germany to launch a nationwide survey about the future demand for green hydrogen, in accord-ance with the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED II). This directive defines which hydrogen will qualify as “green” within the European Union in the future, i.e. hydrogen that has been produced exclusively using renewable electricity. “The survey is aimed at all market participants who need green hydrogen, including representatives from the industrial and mobility sectors, as well as in-termediaries,” says Dr Timo di Nardo, Head of Commercial and Sales Hydrogen at EWE.

Interested customers can take part in the survey from Monday, 26 February 2024 at business.ewe.de/energie/wasserstoff/market-survey 

“We believe that the hydrogen ramp-up has progressed to a point where it is the perfect time for a survey like this. The draft plan presented by the gas transmission network operators for the hydro-gen core network in November of last year allows us to be more confident with our plans so that we can continue to make targeted investments in hydrogen production,” said di Nardo.

Depending on the findings of the survey, EWE may scale up its green hydrogen production capaci-ties even further than planned. EWE aims to establish an electrolysis capacity of around 400 mega-watts by 2027 before increasing that figure to over 1 gigawatt by 2030. However, di Nardo noted that binding contracts would need to be concluded for the purchase of corresponding hydrogen volumes. He also stated that EWE already has signed letters of intent from customers in the indus-trial and mobility sectors.

“This detailed market survey looking into the demand for hydrogen shows that EWE is once again taking a pioneering role in driving the hydrogen ramp-up and is clear evidence of its continued commitment in this field,” said EWE Chief Technology Officer Dr Urban Keussen. EWE GASSPEICHER conduced a market survey on the storage requirements for green hydrogen last autumn. “The stor-age needs reported in that survey have made us very confident that the responses to the upcoming hydrogen demand survey will align with our planned production capacity,” said Keussen.

As part of the IPCEI project "Clean Hydrogen Coastline," EWE is pursuing a range of hydrogen-related projects at every stage of the value chain. This includes hydrogen generation, transporta-tion and utilisation - particularly in the industrial and transport sectors - as well as hydrogen stor-age in underground storage caverns.