German energy company Uniper has reiterated its commitment to its portfolio of clean hydrogen projects after last month’s government bailout.

The German government last month took a 30pc stake in Uniper as part of an emergency rescue package after cuts to its Russian gas imports and spiking European wholesale gas prices threatened the company’s financial stability. Berlin’s stake was engineered via a capital increase of about €267mn ($273mn) and the dilution of the majority share owned by Finnish energy group Fortum. The package also included an increased credit line of €9bn from state-owned bank KfW to secure Uniper’s liquidity.

“As of now, all our [hydrogen] commitments stand as communicated,” Uniper tells Hydrogen Economist.

Uniper has a significant hydrogen portfolio under development, including large-scale projects at its Killingholme site in the Humber region and at the Port of Immingham in the UK, and at its Maasvlakte site at the Port of Rotterdam.

Last week, Uniper advanced a green hydrogen project at the Bad Lauchstadt energy park in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt with the order of a 30MW pressurised alkaline electrolyser.

The electrolyser, supplied by Dresden-based manufacture Sunfire, is due for delivery in 2024 and will be powered by a local windfarm. As part of the Bad Lauchstad project, Uniper also plans to develop a hydrogen storage facility that will feed into the into the local chemical industry via a repurposed gas pipeline.

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Author: Stuart Penson