Investor Found for Massive Hamburg Green H2 Project

The independent asset manager Luxcara, which specializes in renewables, will assume a major stake in this so-called “lighthouse project” for producing environmentally friendly hydrogen as an energy carrier. The investor has a portfolio that includes six gigawatts of wind and solar electricity. It takes over a stake originally envisioned for international companies, which withdrew from the project earlier this year.

The HGHH aims to decarbonize the entire port of Hamburg, the second largest in Europe, and will be located on the site of a coal-burning power plant. It will cost almost EUR 700 million, with Luxcara and the regional utility company Hamburger Energiewerke assuming roughly a third of that sum. The rest of the financing is to come from the EU’s Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) program. Approval of the HGHH’s application is still pending.

“What you need most for green hydrogen is green electricty,” Luxcara Managing Director and co-founder Alexandra von Bernstorff told business newspaper Handelsblatt. “We think the project will pay off. Otherwise we wouldn’t get involved.”