Vienna starts construction of first municipal green hydrogen plant

With a capacity of 1.3 tons of daily hydrogen output, local authorities have a lot of plans for sustainability

Yesterday, authorities in Vienna started constructing the city’s first municipal green hydrogen plant. With an output of 3 megawatts, Wiener Energie, the municipal energy company, will start producing 1,300 kilograms of H2 daily in the summer of 2023.

The construction of the facility will cost around 10 million euros and will only use green energy to make the hydrogen. This means that the whole production and consumption cycle around the project will be carbon neutral. Wien Energie has also said that they plan to use the fuel to decarbonise the city’s natural gas plants and fuel local green mobility.

The whole volume of hydrogen must not go to transport

Additionally, the facility will also have a fuelling station on site, meaning that vehicles will have the option to refuel directly there. However, officials have stressed that the new plant will not double as a refuelling station and private citizens driving up unannounced to the Simmering site will not get service.

At the same time, Wien Energie has signed a deal with Wiener Linen to supply their fleet of hydrogen buses. In theory, the plant can fuel up to 60 vehicles per day, although Wiener Linen currently only operates only 10.

Additionally, according to an official statement, the municipal company is looking for either governmental or private organisations as potential buyers of the fuel.

Furthermore, Wien Energie plans to use at least some of the hydrogen to decarbonise local energy production that still uses fossil fuels. Official data suggests that if they add 15% of hydrogen to the energy mix, they can save 33,000 tons of CO2.

Michael Strebl, CEO of Wien Energie, was quoted in a press release, saying: "In addition to mobility in heavy goods traffic, hydrogen offers great potential for industry and the energy sector - where existing fossil gases cannot be easily replaced by other technologies. It is clear that Hydrogen must be generated from renewable sources such as green electricity. This is the only way we can achieve the energy transition and climate neutrality in 2040."