RWE and Shell are planning a green hydrogen alliance

The energy company RWE and the oil giant Shell want to tackle projects in the fields of green hydrogen and decarbonization together in the future. To this end, Markus Krebber, CEO of RWE AG, and Wael Sawan, Director of Integrated Gas, Renewables and Energy Solutions at Royal Dutch Shell plc, have signed a letter of intent, as announced by the two companies. Among other things, this involves projects for the generation, use and sale of hydrogen. The aim of the agreement is to identify specific project options and develop them through to investment decisions. RWE and Shell want to examine the future development of electrolysis systems for the production of hydrogen. Locations should be considered that have potential pipeline capacities for hydrogen but are currently difficult to connect to the power grid. RWE and Shell want to investigate whether and how green energy can be transported from there to the end customer via a hydrogen pipeline. In addition, hydrogen solutions are to be developed for industrial customers, which will concentrate on the Shell Energy & Chemicals Park Rheinland in Germany, on the Shell locations in Rotterdam and Moerdijk in the Netherlands and on customers in their immediate vicinity. In addition, RWE and Shell want to find possible uses for hydrogen in the mobility sector in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. The starting point for this could be the hydrogen filling station network for heavy trucks that Shell wants to build between Rotterdam, Cologne and Hamburg by 2024, it said. The two companies also agreed to examine technical alternatives for decarbonising RWE's gas and biomass power plants. On the one hand, there is the possibility of capturing and storing CO2, and on the other hand, the use of blue hydrogen in the RWE gas-fired power plants in Pembroke (Wales), Emsland (Germany) and Moerdijk (Netherlands). In both cases, Shell would act as a hydrogen producer and supplier and would take over the storage of the CO2.