Market participants had until June 15 to submit expressions of interest to indicate their desired capacity. As part of this process, Uniper signed letters of intent with the interested parties. According to the company , following the conclusion of the EoI phase, there are sufficient capacity reservations to continue the terminal’s development and move the project into the next phase of development.
In thesecond phase, Uniper now plans to issuekey terms to serve as the basis for the terminal usage agreement. The company is developing this agreement in collaboration with the participating capacity users. The binding capacity booking will take effect upon the signing of the agreement.
Ammonia is intended to serve as a hydrogen carrier
The Wilhelmshaven hydrogen import terminal is designed to facilitate the import of hydrogen via ammonia. Upon delivery, the ammonia will be cracked on-site in an industrial-scale cracker to produce hydrogen and nitrogen. The hydrogen produced will then be fed into Germany’s core hydrogen network. In addition, rail loading facilities are planned for the onward transport of ammonia.
The annualimport capacityisup to 2.6 million metric tons of ammonia. This can be used to produceapproximately 350,000 metric tons of hydrogen. Should the market demonstrate a need for a terminal expansion to maximum capacity, Uniper plans to conduct one or more additional open seasons. The capacity products and terms and conditions for these open seasons may differ from those of the current open season.
"Green Wilhelmshaven" Combines Imports and H₂ Production
The import terminal is part of the large-scale “Green Wilhelmshaven” project, which Uniper is developing on the site of the former coal-fired power plant.In addition to the import terminal, theproject also includes an electrolysis plant, which is designed in multiple phases and is expectedto reach a capacity of up to 1 GW in the future . In its final phase, theelectrolyzeris expected toproduce approximately 100,000 metric tons of hydrogen annually. Local hydrogen production is scheduled to begin operations by the end of the decade.
Wilhelmshaven is Germany's only deep-water port on the North Sea coast that allows large tankers unrestricted access at all times. It also provides access to Germany's largest hydrogen cavern field in Etzel.
