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* Decision due by year-end, says top hydrogen executive
* No interest in buying electrolysis makers
* Regulatory conditions, funding must be in place
(Adds details)
By Vera Eckert and Tom Käckenhoff
ESSEN, Germany, Aug 20 (Reuters) - RWE aims to
pick a supplier of electrolysis capacity this year for a
north-west German showcase project to develop clean hydrogen for
delivery in 2024, a board member at its generation division told
Reuters.
The German utility is holding talks with six short-listed
candidates for an initial 100 megawatts of capacity, said Sopna
Sury, in charge of hydrogen at RWE Generation.
"(We) want to place the order this year. It could be around
November," she told Reuters in an interview.
Developments in clean hydrogen are being funded with
billions of euros of public money under national and Europe-wide
strategies to decarbonise energy generation.
It is produced in electrolysis plants, which use electrical
current to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen, and intended
for manufacturers that currently use fossil-based hydrogen, and
possibly for direct use in heat and transport.
Sury did not name possible candidates for the plant at
Lingen - an old power station site in the Ruhr, Germany's
industrial heartland - but said capacity there could grow to 300
MW in 2026.
Electrolysis makers include Siemens Energy, ITM
Power, and NEL.
The 100 MW installation, embedded in one of a total 30 RWE
hydrogen projects, could cost around 100 million euros ($117
million), experts estimate, and Lingen would be one of the first
plants of that size.
It is at the core of Get H2, a hydrogen project that RWE is
developing with industry partners.
Sury said RWE wanted to act as operator, was not interested
in acquiring electrolysis makers, and needed public funding to
cover perhaps 30-40% of the project's capital costs and enable
regulatory snags over transport and power origins to be cleared
up.
RWE will supply the power for Get H2 and produce and market
the hydrogen while grid companies OGE, nowega, Thyssengas, and
Gascade transport it. Industry partners BP, Salzgitter
Evonik, BASF and Thyssenkrupp
use it.
Thyssenkrupp is considering selling a stake or bringing in a
strategic partner to its hydrogen unit Uhde Chlorine Engineers
(TKUCE).
($1 = 0.8566 euros)
(Reporting by Vera Eckert and Tom Kaeckenhoff, editing by
Kirsti Knolle and John Stonestreet)
