Stadtwerke Bayreuth receives millions for electrolyzer
25.07.2024
The Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy is contributing funds for an electrolyzer at Stadtwerke Bayreuth. This is not the first funding decision.
It was only in April 2024 that the municipal utilities in the north of Bavaria were pleased to receive their first funding approval. Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) presented a 2 million euro funding decision for a hydrogen filling station in Bayreuth. The municipal utilities want to use this to supply their municipal bus fleet with hydrogen. The fleet, currently 35 vehicles, is to become emission-free by 2038.
The hydrogen is to be produced in an electrolyser using renewable electricity from the region in Eduard-Bayerlein-Straße, as was announced at the end of April. Stadtwerke Bayreuth has now received a further grant of 5 million euros for this electrolyzer, as Jan Koch, press spokesman for Stadtwerke Bayreuth, confirmed to the editorial team. Klaus Markolf, responsible for electricity, gas and water (grid) at Stadtwerke Bayreuth, accepted the notification from Aiwanger.
The electrolyzer will have an output of 5 MW and is expected to produce 900 kilograms of hydrogen per day from 2027. "We are currently still examining the extent to which we can use all of the hydrogen right from the start," said the spokesperson. The entire bus fleet will not be emission-free by 2027, so the supplier is looking for other customers - for example for vehicles from the municipal building yard.
According to Koch, the municipal utilities are pursuing a closed-loop model. An 18 MW PV park yet to be built will supply the green electricity for the electrolyzer, which will then supply the hydrogen filling station on site. The waste heat from the electrolysis process is to be used in the new company headquarters, which is to be built on the same site.
"The hydrogen buses can be refueled directly with self-generated hydrogen," explained Aiwanger about the project. "The overall concept of Stadtwerke Bayreuth rightly makes it an energy pioneer."
The funding comes from the "Bavarian funding program for the development of an electrolyser infrastructure" - "BayFELI" for short. With this program, the Free State of Bavaria is supporting the construction of electrolysers in two funding calls with a total of 150 million euros (we reported). The second funding call was launched on June 17. Interested parties have until August 9 to submit their outlines to the project sponsor VDI Technologiezentrum.
Author: Davina Spohn