The European Commission has announced the approval, in accordance with EU State aid rules, of an important project of common European interest (IPCEI) to support research and innovation, as well as the industrial deployment, in the hydrogen technology value chain. The project, called “IPCEI Hy2Tech“, is backed by industry in fifteen Member States: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain.

By virtue of this IPCEI Hy2Tech project, the Member States have committed to contributing up to 5.4 billion euros in public funding, which is expected to unlock an additional 8.8 billion euros in private investment. With this funding, 35 companies have been selected to develop 41 projects related to the entire hydrogen technology value chain, including the generation of hydrogen, fuel cells, storage, transportation and distribution of hydrogen, and end-user applications, in particular in the mobility sector.

Sener has been selected for its project for the technological development of next-generation and alkaline technology electrolyzers. The IPCEI Hy2Tech program will finance the R&D and industrial deployment activities. Sener expects this project to create at least 300 direct jobs, as well as a further 500 indirect jobs as it develops the supply chain with local companies.

In the words of the Director of Hydrogen Development and Investment at Sener Renewable Investments, Telmo Chávarri: “We are proud to be one of four Spanish companies, and 35 European companies, selected by the European Commission in IPCEI Hy2Tech, as it confirms that we are continuing to move in the right direction in the development of hydrogen technology. Our commitment to innovation and sustainability is solid in all our projects. Thanks to this financial boost, we hope to cement our position as technological leaders in the new and promising field of hydrogen technology.”

As part of the process of selecting industrial proposals, the Committee wanted to ensure that the projects financed will develop technologies and processes that go beyond what the market currently offers and will allow major improvements in performance, safety, environmental impact as well as in cost efficiencies. Similarly, the participating companies undertake to share the results of the project with the scientific community and with European industry as a whole, beyond the companies and countries that are part of the IPCEI.

In the words of the European Commission, IPCEI Hy2Tech “contributes to a common objective by supporting a key strategic value chain for the future of Europe, as well as the objectives of key EU policy initiatives such as the Green Deal, the EU Hydrogen Strategy and REPowerEU.”

SENER leads the Clarity consortium, one of the three winners of the first phase of the ProcuRE initiative. Comprising SENER, EURECAT and AGGITY, Clarity offers a single platform with artificial intelligence and digitalization solutions that can adapt a building or infrastructure to be sustainable, i.e. reduce CO2 emissions to a minimum, by achieving optimum efficiency and maximum self-consumption. Thanks to this solution, the European initiative ProcuRE – supported by public institutions from six cities – has selected Clarity as one of the three winning consortiums in the first phase of its proposal.

What is ProcuRE?

Within the framework of the European Union’s climate and energy policies, a group of cities and municipalities in Europe has launched the ProcuRE initiative, with the challenge of obtaining 100% renewable energy supplies (RES) in the existing public building stock through sustainability and innovation solutions.

The developer consortium includes entities such as the Savinjska, Šaleška and Koroška Regional Energy Agency (KSSENA), Slovenia, the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, in Spain; the institutions Stadt Nürnberg and Empirica in Germany; Energaia, the Energy Agency for the South of the Porto Metropolitan Area, Portugal; the Municipality of Eilat, in Israel; the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and Ozyegin University, Turkey; or Eurac Research in Italy. Between them, they manage more than 21,000 buildings.

ProcuRE is based on the following data: buildings are responsible for 40% of total energy consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions in the EU. Around 35% of buildings in the EU are over 50 years old and almost 75% of the building stock is energy inefficient. For 2050, it is expected that 90% of the existing building stock will remain in service. So refurbishment must be ramped up in Europe to achieve the EU’s climate goals, ensuring that existing buildings reach an optimum efficiency level and maximize self-consumption.

In this way, the ProcuRE developers have launched a tender, open to European suppliers, to design, develop and test innovative proposals, which allow a 100% renewable building to be created without the need to adopt invasive building measures. The initiative proposes carrying out pilot tests on buildings specific to the group of developers, to approve the proposed solution.

The ProcuRE initiative has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 963648.

SENER’s solution, within the Clarity consortium

Within the Clarity consortium (also including EURECAT and AGGITY), SENER has presented a single platform, based on artificial intelligence software (AI), capable of calculating and designing the optimal scenario to achieve a 100% renewable solution. The optimum installation calculation results in a mix of renewable technologies that should be installed in the building, combining variables such as the economic, regulatory, technical and environmental impact, as well as the impact of operational management, and thus determining the optimum size according to the building’s conditions.

The processes included in the platform are developed through five modules, which are building evaluation, the calculation of renewable installations based on artificial intelligence, preparation of a feasibility report, the design and construction of an as-built BIM model, which allows integration of all information related to the building into a single database, and improvements to building operation and maintenance using digital tools.

Some components or modules proposed by the Clarity consortium in its single platform are R&D products or solutions developed in different innovation projects of the three companies, which have been tested in real-world scenarios with great results. These include: systems to analyze the renewable generation potential of a building, such as the system to help decide on renewable energy sources (RES), the energy asset sizing tool (EAS) or the SENER Energy Management System (EMS), which allows predictive and automatic control of all the energy assets of an installation; operation and maintenance systems such as the RESPIRA® intelligent ventilation system, the SIGMA platform for digital asset management or the methodology registered in BIM blockchain.

Pursuing its aim of becoming climate-neutral by 2035, EnBW has launched three major fuel switch projects in the past year to convert existing coal power plant sites in Altbach/Deizisau, Stuttgart-Münster and Heilbronn into natural gas and, from the 2030s, green hydrogen plants.

This week, EnBW and a consortium consisting of General Electric, SENER and Bonatti signed contracts for the Heilbronn and Altbach/Deizisau sites.

The major order, with a volume in the mid-three-digit million range per site, includes the construction of one combined heat and power plant each as well as the respective maintenance and servicing work.

The contracts are being awarded in phases and in parallel with the planning approval process at the sites. The cooperation between the consortium and EnBW required the turbines to be H₂-ready, i.e., already capable of generating electricity with hydrogen.

Until the necessary infrastructure is in place, the only option available within the energy transition is natural gas to fill the gap in controllable power available at the push of a button at any time of the day or night.

From left to right: Donato Santomauro (Bonatti, Director Plants and Pipelines Business Unit), Andreas Mühlig (EnBW, Head of Generation Operation), Michael Class (EnBW, Head of Generation Portfolio Development), Brice Raisin (General Electric, Senior Executive Sales), Jorge Nicolas Barbagero (SENER, Operation Director). Photo credits: Source: EnBW/Photographer: Paul Gärtner.

“The current events in Ukraine clearly show the challenges associated with the European energy transition. Modern gas power plants play an indispensable role in maintaining sufficiently flexible power generation and thus guaranteeing security of supply. They must support the expansion of renewable energies”, explains Michael Class, Head of Generation Portfolio Development. “In the planning of the power plants, we already foresee the conversion to hydrogen today. This conversion to 100% hydrogen is already predefined through the plant technology.»

“While Germany is undertaking exemplary measures to increase energy security and independence through driving decarbonisation, GE is proud to lead a consortium with SENER & Bonatti and together with EnBW address the opportunities and challenges of the energy transition. We are committed to supporting these efforts with GE’s industry-leading H-Class gas turbines technology, a key enabler to increase the share of renewables, and to accelerate coal phase-out as we work towards zero-carbon gas-based power generation with hydrogen,” says Joe Anis, President & CEO, Europe, Middle East & Africa, GE Gas Power.

For their part, SENER and Bonatti state: “We are happy to join EnBW and contribute with our experience and know-how to the engineering and construction of these two large scale modern power plants that will eventually become green hydrogen units”. And they add: “This is also our way to boost the European and German energy transitions in line with the demanding present and, most importantly, future needs. This project further consolidates the profitable collaboration between SENER and Bonatti started about 10 years ago”.

A total of around 1,300 megawatts of electricity generation capacity is set to be produced at the two power plant sites. In addition, gas power plants contribute to efficient heat recovery as a by-product of electricity generation.

Fuel switch in Heilbronn

There are plans at the Heilbronn site to construct a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant with an electrical output of approx. 680 MW and thermal output of up to 190 MW for heat extraction. The new plant will thus also secure the district heating supply in Heilbronn in the long term. Coal unit 7 and reserve units 5 and 6 at the power plant could be shut down following the commissioning of the CCGT plant. The land-use planning process is currently under way at the Heilbronn site. The expectation is that the land-use plan will be presented to the public at the end of 2022. The approval process in line with the Federal Immission Control Act will then take place.

Fuel switch in Altbach/Deizisau

There are plans at the Altbach/Deizisau site to construct a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant with an electrical output of approx. 680 MW and thermal output of up to 180 MW for heat extraction. Two hard coal units at the power plant could be shut down following the planned commissioning of the CCGT plant in 2026. The submission of the approval application to the regional authority in Stuttgart in line with the Federal Immission Control Act is planned for the summer of 2022.