Hydrogen atlas suggests the best electrolysis sites

15.05.2025

Source: E & M powernews

Large electrolysers are best located close to enormous wind power generation capacities and future hydrogen pipelines. This is the recommendation of a new H2 atlas from Fraunhofer ISE.

Not entirely surprisingly, a hydrogen atlas has now identified recommended locations for electrolysers. The production plants for - ideally - green gas should be located in northern Germany and at nodes of the emerging hydrogen core pipeline network.

The consortium responsible for the atlas, led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE (Fraunhofer ISE), focused on the cost aspect in its study. Green hydrogen can be produced cheaply if green electricity power plants are available in the vicinity of electrolysers. The north of Germany has locational advantages here because there is a lot of wind energy.

According to the study, it would make no sense to set up electrolysers without a connection to the future pipeline system for hydrogen. "Electrolysis sites are often ideal on the sites of former fossil fuel power plants or industrial parks that have a well-developed infrastructure," says Jochen Behrens, project manager at Fraunhofer ISE.

Decision-makers and investors receive guidelines for planning

If you go to the project page of the analysis institutes, you will see green dots of different sizes on the map of Germany. They symbolize the approximate locations for electrolysers and their advisable generation capacity. Also advisable in terms of usability for various industrial sectors and local public transport. The analysis can be broken down for the years 2025, 2030, 2035 and 2045.

For example, the atlas recommends an electrolyser site between Varel and Oldenburg in Lower Saxony for the year 2030 in the hydrogen core network, which is to be realized successively. If you click on this location, you will see various calculations and data. A capacity of a good 3,100 MW would be conceivable here, with a production of a good 207,000 tons of hydrogen per year and average production costs of 4.8 euros per kilo. The annual energy requirement here is 12.6 billion kWh, 30 percent of which could come from regional sources.

The companies and research institutes have also examined the potential for waste heat and oxygen. Although these are feasible, they are not decisive for the choice of location, according to a statement from Fraunhofer ISE.

With their hydrogen atlas, which the federal government has funded with around 2.5 million euros, the participants want to assist project planners, energy suppliers, municipalities and authorities. "The atlas creates a sound basis for holistic project planning (...) in order to successfully implement system-friendly and cost-efficient green hydrogen projects in Germany," says Kim Kanitz, project engineer at the energy supplier Green Planet Energy, which was also involved in the project.

Other participants in the project were Flensburg University of Applied Sciences, the Rhineland-Palatinate Technical University of Kaiserslautern-Landau, the German Hydrogen Association, the engineering firm Planet, which specializes in the use of hydrogen, and Greenventory, a spin-off of Fraunhofer ISE and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

The hydrogen atlas can be found on the Internet.

Author: Volker Stephan