For decades, industry has had raw materials such as oil or gas pumped out of the ground to meet the sheer energy requirements. But the wind is gradually changing – in the truest sense of the word: more and more companies are securing energy from renewable sources in order to improve their climate balance. Two reports from this Monday only provide the latest examples.
The oil company BP and the Karlsruhe utility EnBW have been awarded the contract for a large wind farm off the coast of Scotland. The wind turbines should be built from 2026 onwards and, theoretically speaking, be able to supply a good three million households with electricity. For EnBW it is the largest wind project in the company’s history – and the second together with BP.
The British group, which is known in Germany for its Aral filling stations, is not involved without reason: it can sell part of the green electricity to charging stations for electric cars. In addition, BP manufactures aviation fuels or intermediate products for the chemical industry in refineries, for example in Gelsenkirchen. For this, refineries need a lot of hydrogen, which they have so far produced from natural gas, which is harmful to the climate. Renewable energy also provides the way out here: companies like BP want to produce hydrogen from water with a lot of green electricity in the future; it is then called “green” hydrogen.
Production in Germany alone will not be able to meet the needs of industry
This is also where a declaration of intent comes in, which the plastics manufacturer Covestro from Leverkusen and the Australian mining company Fortescue have now shot. They are working on a contract according to which Fortescue will deliver tens of thousands of tons of “green” hydrogen to Covestro from 2024 – including in the form of ammonia, which contains hydrogen and is easier to ship.
The Dax group Covestro manufactures plastics that are used in car headlights, among other things, or foam materials for mattresses and insulation. So far, the former Bayer subsidiary has been buying hydrogen and ammonia based on natural gas. With the alternative from renewable sources, the company can reduce the CO₂ footprint of its products by a few percent.
The new partner Fortescue wants to use solar and wind power for the “green” hydrogen, which is potentially available in large quantities in Australia. Larger production capacities for “green” hydrogen are also to be built in Germany in the next few years. This is what the federal government envisages in its hydrogen strategy. But since, for example, heavy goods traffic and the steel industry will also need the energy source on a large scale in the future, Germany is also working on hydrogen partnerships abroad.