EU project Demo4Grid enabled the construction of an alkali pressure electrolysis plant to regulate the TIWAG electricity grid and produce green hydrogen as the basis for an MPREIS hydrogen business case and the development of the green hydrogen economy in Central Europe.
In the absence of the EU representatives who were prevented from attending, the official opening of the “Demo4Grid” electrolysis plant also took place on the occasion of the commissioning of the first hydrogen truck at the Tyrolean grocer MPREIS in Völs on 2 March 2023.
The “Demo4Grid” project was brought to Tyrol in 2016 on the initiative of the Tyrolean start-up FEN Systems as part of an EU tender in a competitive process. The 3 megawatt alkali pressure electrolysis plant included in it was built at the MPREIS production and logistics centre in Völs in recent years. This started trial operation in March 2022.
The plant was co-financed in equal parts by the European Union and the Swiss government with around 7 million euros and primarily serves to research and demonstrate electricity grid balancing services under real operating and market conditions. At the same time, it also produces green hydrogen, which is temporarily stored on site for use as needed in various industrial and logistics processes.
FEN Systems and MPREIS are the Tyrolean representatives in the international Demo4Grid consortium, whose client is the EU’s Clean Hydrogen Partnership. The consortium leader is DIAD (Diadikasia Business Consultants S.A.) from Greece. The supplier of the electrolyser is Sunfire with locations in Switzerland and Germany. Research partners are FHA (Fundación Hidrógeno Aragón) and INYCOM (Instrumentación y Componentes S.A.) from Spain.
Christian von Olshausen, CTO Sunfire: “We are very pleased to demonstrate our proven pressurised alkali electrolysis in Tyrol. It is only through hydrogen initiatives like this that we can achieve the EU’s ambitious climate targets. Our technology is already enabling many energy-intensive industries to master the green transformation. We are proud to have found another strong project partner in MPREIS.”
“The Sunfire electrolysis plant will be used for electricity grid regulation by TIWAG until 2024 and will still belong to the Demo4Grid consortium until that time. After that, it will be taken over by MPREIS under regulated conditions,” explains Demo4Grid project operator Ewald Perwög from MPREIS.
“We were able to win the EU competition project with a European consortium for the MPREIS site in Völs because, in addition to the research purpose, we were able to demonstrate a real business case here with the self-utilisation of the green hydrogen in the production and logistics process and, in addition, we were also able to open up the option for the development of a green hydrogen economy in Central Europe. The relevant lines of development are currently converging in the HyWest research centre at the Green Energy Center Europe in Innsbruck,” says project initiator Ernst Fleischhacker, Managing Director of FEN Systems and founder of the Green Energy Center Europe.
Proof of funding:
The project “Demo4Grid” has been funded by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership (formerly Fuel Cells & Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking) of the European Commission under grant agreement no. 736351 and by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation under contract number 17.00002. The Clean Hydrogen Partnership is supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and by Hydrogen Europe and Hydrogen Europe Research.