JLEN Environmental Assets is investing alongside alternative asset manager Foresight Group to help develop the first 100MW phase of a green-hydrogen production facility in Germany being built by HH2E.
JLEN which is investing up to €9.2m in the site located in Lubmin, said the investment is being made alongside a consortium including other Foresight-managed funds and its development partner HH2E. Details of Foresight’s financial contribution were not disclosed.
The first 100MW phase of the Lubmin plant is capable of producing over 6,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per annum. Subsequent expansion phases are expected to increase capacity to over 1GW, with annual production exceeding 60,000 tonnes of green hydrogen.
The latest deal represents JLEN’s second green-hydrogen development opportunity, also in Germany. Back in January JLEN invested in the Thierbach green-hydrogen project near Borna in Germany in partnership with HH2E.
Ed Warner, the chairman of JLEN, said: “Hydrogen has an important role to play in decarbonising heavy transport, industry, and other hard-to-abate sectors of the economy. Investing in this sector will remain an important near-term focus for the company as we continue to assess opportunities to recycle capital within the portfolio.”
Alexander Voigt, co-founder and board member of HH2E, said: “Our plans are now closer to materialising as we initially envisioned, thanks to the collaboration with Foresight Group, which has served as a significant catalyst. In March we confirmed the acquisition of 120MW capacity of electrolysis equipment from the Norwegian manufacturer Nel which we can deploy across several HH2E locations.”
Chris Holmes, partner at Foresight Group, said the Lubmin project adds to the Thierbach project Foresight invested in at the start of 2023, and together the projects are progressing well toward their Final Investment Decisions.
Holmes added: ”Foresight sees hydrogen playing a key role in decarbonising heavy transport, industry, and other hard-to-abate sectors of the economy.”
The mayor of Lubmin, Axel Vogt, said: “I am pleased that an old infrastructure that once housed a nuclear power plant is paving the way for a new generation green-energy site. The plant near Lubmin is strategically located, in close proximity to wind and solar farms that generate large amounts of renewable energy.
”With HH2E and its partners, we have been able to attract an innovative and efficient company that will contribute significantly to the energy transformation of our site.”
Reinhard Meyer, minister of economics, infrastructure, tourism and labour and energy of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, said: ”The planned construction and operation of an industrial-scale electrolysis plant in Lubmin shows very clearly that Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, with its large supply of wind and solar energy, offers locational advantages for investments in the energy transition and thus in the transformation of industry towards climate neutrality.
”This project can make an important contribution to the green-hydrogen economy on our Baltic coast.”
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