Eesti Energia plans hydrogen-ready power plant by 2030

Estonian energy company Eesti Energia is planning to build two hydrogen power plants, with the first potentially coming on line as early as 2028, the firm told Argus this week.

"Our immediate plan is to build the first hydrogen peak power plant in Narva, with a capacity of about 100MW, and to build a second plant near the capital city of Tallinn, with about the same parameters, based on this experience," the firm said. Eesti Energia plans to finish the design of the plant next year, and it will then open a call for tenders. While the project is still in an "early phase", if the engineering study delivers "encouraging results and all subsequent project steps go as planned", it could commission the first plant "by the end of this decade, in 2028 at the earliest", the firm told Argus.

The plants will be built near existing power plants owned by Eesti Energia, and it is therefore "very rational to start [a] new project from Narva and review other potential locations as we progress", the firm said. There is also a local heating network, which will allow residual heat from power production to be distributed in the system.

The project is designed as a peaking plant, which will only run when dispatchable power supply is required at times when renewable production is weak. The plant will be able to run on hydrogen, biomethane and if necessary on natural gas.

When questioned by Argus on whether there would be sufficient quantities of hydrogen available already by the end of this decade to make power production economical, Eesti Energia responded that the large-scale use of green hydrogen in power and heat production will only arrive in the "middle/late [part] of the next decade", which is why it is also assessing the possibility of using blue hydrogen during the transition period. "Besides hydrogen, we see potential in using biomethane," the firm added.

Eesti Energia also plans to produce hydrogen itself - "in the coming years, we will see pilot-scale hydrogen production in Estonia", although larger regional volumes of green hydrogen production is likely to only come to the market "in the next decade", it told Argus. The prerequisite for large-scale green hydrogen production is a surplus of renewable power in the region, but this renewable capacity is "still in a build-up phase". In addition, the creation of a scalable hydrogen market requires new infrastructure - "more specifically, green hydrogen pipelines connecting excess supply and industrial demand and also green port infrastructure", Eesti Energia said.

The Estonian gas association has previously called for the construction of a gas-fired power plant in the country to cover peak consumption and the intermittency of renewable generation.

By Brendan A'Hearn