British oil and gas giant scores funding for important green hydrogen project

The funding allows bp to make progress with its green H2 project in Germany

Thanks to having secured funding in Germany, bp, the British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, can move forward with its Lingen green hydrogen project. The funding was jointly provided by the Germany government and the state of Lower Saxony at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) in Berlin, as part of the European IPCEI (Important Projects of Common European Interest) Hy2Infra wave.

bp is expected to fully own and operate the green H2 plant.

The funding for the green hydrogen project will aid in the development of a 100-megawatt (MW) renewable-powered hydrogen production facility located next to bp’s Lingen refinery in Germany. This refinery is the smaller of the two that bp currently has in Germany.

The hydrogen that is produced at the plant will be used by local industries as well as at the company’s Lingen refinery, where bp recently scaled back previous plans to produce biofuels.

According to bp, this project is expected to be the first large-scale green H2 plant that it fully owns and operates.

Up to 11 kilotons of green hydrogen will be produced annually.

The 100-MW electrolyzers planned for installation at the hydrogen production plant will reportedly be capable of generating 10 to 11 kilotons (on average) of green hydrogen power each year. The renewable energy required to produce the green H2 will, at first, be supplied by an offshore wind power purchase agreement.

As previously mentioned, the hydrogen produced from the project will not only be used by bp’s refinery, but also support local industries. Among these industrial customers include steel and chemical producers. The goal of the project is to decarbonize various production processes in Lingen and the Lower Saxony region.

In a recent bp news release announcing the funding, Patrick Wendeler, Head of Country bp Germany, said that with the funding, bp is “a step further” toward progressing its green hydrogen project in Lingen, enabling the company to offer low carbon hydrogen to its industrial customers and its own Lingen refinery “in the future.”

Germany is on board with a hydrogen economy.

The country sees the development of a hydrogen economy as an important part of its and Europe’s decarbonization and transitioning from fossil fuels to cleaner energy.

According to Lower Saxony Minister for Economic Affairs, Transport, Building and Digitization, Olaf Lies, the plan is to build the “central core of this hydrogen economy in Lower Saxony”. Lies added that bp’s Lingen hydrogen project “will be a milestone” in green hydrogen production.