Hamburg Green Hydrogen Hub: 100 MW green hydrogen plant powered by wind and solar.

As a forerunner for climate neutrality and with a strong commitment to hydrogen production, Hanseatic City of Hamburg is striving to become Climate-neutral by 2040. The city will play a pioneering role among European cities in this respect.

Our Energy Transition expert team has been commissioned by Hamburg Green Hydrogen Hub (HGHH) to take on the FEED (front end engineering & design). This includes support in the approval process and in the preparation of tender documents for the EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction), i.e. the engineering services for the design, procurement, and construction of the plant.

The electrolysis plant for green hydrogen is to be built on the site of the decommissioned Hamburg-Moorburg coal-fired power plant. The plant is due to go into operation by 2027 and will then produce 10,000 tons of green hydrogen per year.

The project is ideal for Ramboll, as our broad portfolio enables us to cover practically all service phases.

An interdisciplinary team is working on the project, consisting of more than just energy specialists. Due to the complex requirements of the project, the team also includes experts from the fields of building planning, water treatment, structural engineering, and construction design.

When selecting a suitable partner for the project, Ramboll was able to score points in various areas. On the one hand, proximity to the customer played a role. Most experts involved in the project are based at our largest location in Hamburg. Secondly, the team was able to impress the client with its in-depth expertise right from the initial exploratory discussions.

Ramboll is one of the few engineering and planning offices with the necessary human resources to handle such a large-scale project.

Project manager Daniel Pahl says: “We are delighted that our interdisciplinary and experienced planning team was able to convince the customer. With this project, we are contributing to closing the gap in Hamburg's decarbonization and coming a step closer to climate neutrality.”

Merlin Burmester, Technical Project Manager of Luxcara, adds: “In a consortium with Hamburger Energiewerke and with the planning expertise of Ramboll, we are transforming the Moorburg site. We will soon be able to produce climate-friendly green hydrogen here - for Hamburg's industry, economy and to supply its citizens.”

The hydrogen produced here will be fed into the gas infrastructure of Gasnetz Hamburg and some of it will also be loaded onto trailers for flexible transportation. The energy from the hydrogen will then be available to the various surrounding industrial sites and the port, as well as for use in transportation and logistics in and around Hamburg.

The green electricity for electrolysis is sourced via purchase agreements from surrounding offshore wind farms and photovoltaics and is therefore completely climate-neutral. The water required for the process is taken from the River Elbe and treated accordingly.

According to Hamburger Energiewerke, the hydrogen used from the plant will contribute to a significant greenhouse gas reduction - both by replacing fossil fuels in industry and transport, but also by using the waste heat from the electrolysis process and feeding it into the heating network.

The pioneering project is one of the prestigious IPCEI funded by the EU. IPCEI (Important Project of Common European Interest) projects are projects that are classified by the EU as particularly worthy of funding and contribute to the EU's strategic objectives, in this case the green transition.

The HGHH is supported by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action on the basis of a decision by the German Bundestag.

Moreover, the Hamburg Green Hydrogen Hub can be seen as a pioneering project to decarbonize an entire port industry. Further scaling of production is possible, the plant at the Moorburg site has the potential to be expanded to 800 MW, making it one of the largest plants in Europe.

Ramboll is currently implementing similar and larger hydrogen projects in Finland and Denmark, for example for Europe's first gigawatt-scale electrolysis plant in Esbjerg.