Economics Minister Robert Habach (Greens) enthusiastically announced in September: “We see a nationwide trend that industry will go where there is a lot of green electricity. The West Coast is a shining example of this.” Here, in Hemmingstedt, the three companies Refinery Heide, Ørsted Deutschland and Hynamix Deutschland were to build an electrolysis plant. Now the consortium has canceled the project. Construction costs and economic risks are very high. Even generous subsidies cannot change this.
Heide Refinery initiated this project as part of the nationwide hydrogen strategy. Its aim was to contribute to the German energy transition. Green hydrogen should be produced here on an industrial scale. Now it turns out that none of these are economically viable.
The despair in the area is clearly noticeable, especially in the Stadtwerke Heide. Your “Green Heating” project, which aimed to integrate green hydrogen into local heating systems, has also been affected. The Chairman of the Municipal Utility Supervisory Board, Andreas Hein, criticized the federal government for the lack of a suitable legal framework for the realization of such projects.
Managing Director of Heide Refinery, Roland Kuhl, stressed the intention to continue using the knowledge gained from the project to decarbonize the refinery. Despite the project’s cancellation, the long-term goal is to build a green hydrogen economy on the West Coast.
