Ukrhydroenergo revises plans to develop green hydrogen, working on bigger projects - company chief

MOSCOW. Nov 28 (Interfax) - Ukrhydroenergo is working with Germany's Andritz Hydro GmbH on a project to produce green hydrogen in Ukraine with capacity of 5 MW instead of the previously announced 1 MW, then 2-3 MW, Ukrainian media quoted Ukrhydroenergo chief Igor Sirota as saying.

"We are now talking about 5-10 MW. Firstly, it will be cheaper per megawatt to build 5 MW than 2 MW. If we build 2 MW it will cost 3 million euros, while 5 MW will cost not 7.5 million euros but 5-6 million euros," he said.

Sirota said that with this in mind a new memorandum was signed with Andritz in October. The previous trilateral memorandum, which also involved MAN Energy Solutions, did not yield the necessary results.

"So we signed a memorandum with Andritz. They have two divisions that deal exclusively with hydrogen. Andritz specialists also have some Norwegian know-how. In addition, we have learned a lot of new things this year," Sirota said.

He said Andritz was very important for the company, since Germany was the main driver of green hydrogen in Europe.

"We proposed to draft a feasibility study. Andritz, as our partner, will seek funds from the German government to finance the project. Yes, these are not today's economics. But this is the future. We have to move towards this. We have already laid some groundwork and know where demand for that 5-10MW can be sourced, we know there is that demand in Ukraine," Sirota said.

He did not say exactly where that demand would be but that it was quite realistic to find the money for such a project.

"If we see the project is cost effective for a period of three, four or five years, then we will seek a grant for a pilot project, say 6 million euros. It is quite acceptable for Europeans to allocate such an amount for a pilot hydrogen project in Ukraine. It's not 100 million, not a billion," he said.