Green H2 plant in Germany to receive NGK’s proprietary battery tech

The Japanese tech company will provide its propriety NAS batteries.

A green hydrogen plant located in northern Germany on the Baltic Shore, currently being developed by HH2E, is to be supplied with 230-megawatt hour sodium-sulfur (NAS) battery storage. These batteries are proprietary tech from Japan-based technology company, NGK Insulators.

The goal is to use stored energy in electrolysis.

NGK Insulators, which specializes in proprietary core ceramic technologies, will deliver 72 containerized NAS battery storage units to the green H2 plant. The purpose of these batteries is to store electricity produced from wind turbines and solar panels, which will later be used in an electrolysis process to generate green hydrogen.

The batteries have a maximum output of 18 megawatts and 104.4-megawatt hour capacity, which is about a 5.8-hour duration.

The 72 NAS battery storage units were ordered by BASF Stationary Energy Storage, a subsidiary of BASF, a chemicals company based in Germany. Since 2019, NGK and BASF have collaborated on efforts to promote, distribute, and market the high-temp NAS battery tech. This battery order represents the first batch of a supply deal that is anticipated to total as much as 230 megawatt hours.

Batteries with a wide variety of uses including green H2 production.

NGK’s NAS battery technology isn’t new to the energy market. For more than two decades it has been used in a wide range of energy storage applications. According to the company, approximately 5 gigawatt hours of NAS battery systems are in operation across the globe.

The batteries have been deployed for multiple purposes. Among the various use cases include renewable power integration and backup power supply. In 2020, the tech was used in green H2 production by South Korean company G-Philos, with an initial 19.2-megawatt hour order volume.

Green hydrogen offered at a fixed price.

Another interesting point about this particular green H2 plant is its developer, HH2E. The company, which currently has two large-scale projects in development, is a specialist in CO2-free hydrogen production that uses low-cost renewable energy generated at off-peak times. According to HH2E, the hydrogen it produces, which can be used for storage, transportation fuel, heat or generating electricity, is aways offered at a fixed price.