Uniper re-opens Heyden 4 coal-fired plant, and advances Canada’s first green H2 hub

23 August 2022


Uniper's Heyden 4 hard-coal-fired power plant in Petershagen near Minden will start to produce electricity for the market on 29 August 2022 and will probably continue until 30 April 2023. The deployment of the 875 MW unit is part of the "Ersatzkraftwerkebereithaltungsgesetz" law which is intended to secure Germany's energy supply in the coming winters. Should the deadlines of this law be extended, Heyden 4 could remain on the market for another year.

The envisaged operation of Heyden 4 will be restricted owing to limitations on the rail transportation capacity of hard coal to the site, which could be lifted when additional transportation capacity becomes available.

Uniper can revoke the decision to return to the market at any time with four weeks' notice. A prerequisite for use is also the activation of at least the alert level in the federal government's gas emergency plan, which is currently the case. Since mid-2021, Heyden 4 has supported the electricity system as a reserve power plant, but has not produced any electricity for the market. At the end of 2020, Uniper had ended commercial operation of the power plant as part of its decarbonisation plan, which envisages CO2 neutrality in European electricity generation by 2035. On 1 June 2021, the German regulator Bundesnetzagentur had certified the power plant to be "systemically relevant" and thus necessary for the secure supply of the region. Otherwise, Uniper would have shut down the power plant permanently on 8 July 2021.

EverWind secures offtake from Canada’s first green H2 hub

Uniper, and EverWind Fuels Company, a private developer of green hydrogen and ammonia production in Nova Scotia, Canada, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for Uniper to purchase green ammonia from EverWind’s initial production facility in Point Tupper, Nova Scotia. Under the MOU, EverWind and Uniper intend to negotiate a binding offtake agreement for 500 000 tonnes per year of green ammonia. Point Tupper is a multi-phase green hydrogen and ammonia production and export facility, which is in advanced stages of development and is expected to reach commercial operation in early 2025, the first in Atlantic Canada.

The signing of this MOU with Uniper, together with the simultaneous signing of a second offtake MOU with an as yet unnamed partner, results in EverWind having commitments to put in place offtake for one million tonnes per annum of future green ammonia production at Point Tupper.



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