Clean Energy Partnership (CEP) announces six new locations by end of 2015
The hydrogen infrastructure in NRW is undergoing significant expansion: By the end of 2015 there will be new locations for refuelling fuel cell vehicles with compressed hydrogen at 700 bar in Aachen, Dusseldorf, at Cologne/Bonn Airport, the Cologne-West motorway junction, in Münster and in Wuppertal. Westfalen Gruppe, a new CEP member, will build and operate the site in Münster.
At the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Network NRW annual meeting, Dr Frank-Michael Baumann, Managing Director of EnergieAgentur.NRW, Patrick Schnell, Chairman of the CEP, and Dr Klaus Bonhoff, Managing Director of NOW (National Organisation for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology), presented a map of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia with the new stations marked on it to NRW’s Climate Minister Johannes Remmel, who was delighted: “With hydrogen as a storage medium and fuel, we can link the energy and transport sectors and make possible emissions-free mobility. I am convinced that fuel cell vehicles will make an important contribution to solving the climate and emission problems generated by traffic, while also advancing the development of renewable energies. The filling stations in NRW are a nucleus for the further expansion of the infrastructure.”
CEP Chairman Patrick Schnell said: “The coordination of the individual sites is of key importance so as to achieve as comprehensive a network as possible. In Baden-Württemberg, Berlin, Hamburg and now also in North Rhine-Westphalia, we have been able to achieve this goal – now the other federal states must follow.”
The sites for the hydrogen stations were selected based on transport, logistical and strategic criteria: Air Liquide already operates the first public hydrogen filling station in NRW in the Höherweg district of Dusseldorf. The proposed hydrogen filling station in Aachen (Air Liquide) is important as a corridor filling station for the Europe-wide expansion of the hydrogen infrastructure. Other filling stations will be built at the busy Cologne-West A4/A1 motorway junction (Air Liquide), in the south of Dusseldorf (Air Liquide), at Cologne/Bonn Airport (Total/Linde), and in Wuppertal (Shell) and Münster (Westfalen).
At the annual meeting, the CEP also welcomed a new partner company: Münster-based Westfalen Gruppe. Its CEO Wolfgang Fritsch Albert was welcomed in the presence of the Minister and said: “With our 260 Westfalen and Markant filling stations and our own hydrogen production facility, we are practically predestined to help advance the development of the hydrogen filling station network.” The new partner will begin with the opening of a major Westfalen filling station in Münster in the near future, which will be equipped with hydrogen fuel pumps for cars and buses in 2015.
Westfalen Gruppe is an international energy technology company. With around 1,400 employees, the group generated revenues of around 1.9 billion euros in the 2013 financial year. For many decades, the family-owned SME’s core competencies have included service stations and industrial gases as well as energy supply.
The new locations in North Rhine-Westphalia are part of the expansion programme for hydrogen filling stations that industry representatives agreed with the Federal Ministry of Transport in 2012. According to these plans, by the end of next year there will be 50 filling stations to form the basis of a nationwide network, thereby creating an important prerequisite for the launch of the first car models in the years ahead. At the same time, the filling stations serve as an important testing ground for innovative technologies to ensure safe and fast refuelling with hydrogen. Germany’s federal government supports the “50 filling stations” programme as part of its National Innovation Programme for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology (NIP). NIP is a research and development program which focuses on the demonstration of the technology in everyday life.
