Hydrogen production testing ground to open on Sakhalin this summer - authorities
YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK. March 6 (Interfax) - A hydrogen testing ground is set to open on Sakhalin Island this summer, the regional government's press service reported.
"The Hydrogen Engineering Center, with a testing ground at the Special Design Bureau of Marine Research Automation Tools (SKB SAMI) of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is supposed to start operating in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk at the end of June. Equipment that will make it possible to produce hydrogen with the help of solar and wind energy is now being delivered here," the press release said.
The hydrogen will be produced using electrolysis to split water into oxygen and hydrogen gas.
The press service said 600 500-watt panels have already arrived for the future solar farm. All of the equipment is expected to be received by May 15, after which it will be assembled and commissioned within a month.
"The Sakhalin testing ground will be the first site of its kind in Russia. The island region won the right to implement the pilot project for development of hydrogen energy initiated by President Vladimir Putin. If the experiment is successful, a hydrogen plant will be launched in a few years and exports of clean fuel will be arranged to countries in the Asia-Pacific region," the press service said.
"Sakhalin is becoming a big research location. Our partner in creating the hydrogen testing ground is the Moscow Physics and Technology Institute. A few days ago we signed an agreement with the Bauman Moscow [State Technical] University," Governor Valery Limarenko was quoted as saying by the press service.
Hydrogen produced at the testing ground will be used to provide electricity to the remote village of Novikovo in the Korsakovsky district. Clean energy will also be used by the Emergency Situations Ministry at the Pushisty airfield in the Korsakovsky district, for cell towers in the village of Ogonki in the Anivsky district and, in future, for public transport and heavy utility vehicles in the region.
It was reported earlier that Sakhalin Island will become home to the Eastern Hydrogen Cluster. The regional government signed a cooperation agreement on this project last year with state corporation Rosatom, JSC RAOS, Gazprom and the Far East Development Ministry.
The cluster will include the testing ground and an export-oriented hydrogen plant that will produce hydrogen through steam-methane reforming. The first phase of the plant, with capacity to produce 30,000 tonnes per year, was initially scheduled to go into operation at the end of 2026 with plans to expand production to 100,000 tonnes in 2030. However, Rusatom Overseas vice president Anton Moskvin said in the Federation Council on March 5 that Rosatom plans to launch the plant in 2029 with capacity to produce up to 36,500 tonnes of blue hydrogen per year.
The goal of the cluster is to create a new hydrogen energy industry in the region that will export hydrogen, develop full-cycle hydrogen technologies and promote their domestic use in the energy, transport and public utilities sectors.