H2POWERPLANT for backup energy & self-sufficiency

Dortmund, Germany

The multinational technology company Wilo created the H2POWERPLANT system alongside French electrical engineering company Schneider Electric – initially to provide the Wilopark headquarters and factory with emergency of back-up power supply using green hydrogen. However, it is intended as the basis for a self-sufficient, decentralised and regenerative energy supply network – and was designed for potential expansion enabling self-sufficient energy supply of up to two days.

Wilo’s H2POWERPLANT has four core components, with the first being the photovoltaic system on the roof of its Smart Factory and the second, a cluster of 95 AEM Electrolysers supplied by Enapter that use the PV electricity to create green hydrogen. With a 29.8 metre hydrogen storage tank, Wilo can achieve short-to-long-term energy storage, and then reconvert the hydrogen to electricity when needed using a fuel cell supplied by Proton Motor. In this way, the modular system should produce up to 10 tonnes of green hydrogen per year, and the waste heat released by the electrolysis process can also be used directly on site in the interconnected system or be converted into cooling.