WIf everything goes well, Germany will be able to feed the first liquid natural gas directly into the transmission system as early as the beginning of 2023. The saviors in the energy crisis are currently still swimming on the oceans. The four LNG tankers of the Greek shipping company Dynagas and the Norwegian shipping company Höegh LNG are equipped with a special technical finesse. They not only transport liquid natural gas at a temperature of minus 162 degrees Celsius. They also turn it back into gas at the destination, which can be fed directly into the local grid. To do this, the LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) must be heated with great care, as it expands six hundred times when it transitions into the gaseous state.
With these FSRU (Floating Storage and Regasification Unit), Germany would have its own, albeit floating, LNG terminals for the first time. The “Transgas Force” and the “Transgas Power” of the shipping company Dynagas, built last year, will be operated by Uniper, the other two special ships by a consortium of the energy group RWE and the Dutch pipeline operator Gasunie, which also operates in Germany. Uniper has opted for the Wilhelmshaven location in Lower Saxony for the first of its terminal ships, while RWE and Gasunie are moving to Brunsbüttel in Schleswig-Holstein with one ship. The other two locations have not yet been determined. Stade, Rostock, Hamburg or Lubmin, the terminus of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, through which Russian natural gas is currently still flowing to Germany, are possible.
It could be as simple as that, and the ships might even be available sooner. However, neither in Wilhelmshaven nor in Brunsbüttel have there been long-distance gas pipelines of sufficient dimensions that have a connection to the entire network. In Wilhelmshaven, the task now is to build a 28-kilometer pipeline. In Brunsbüttel it even takes 68 kilometers.
40 billion cubic meters of gas per year
The Essen-based pipeline operator Open Grid Europe is responsible for the line between the Voslap handling facility in the German Bight off Wilhelmshaven, which the chemical industry currently uses for the import and export of raw materials and intermediate products, and the natural gas pipeline network. The company, which also operates the Etzel natural gas storage facility, has already started with the construction preparations. However, given the bumpy permitting procedures, the goal of putting them into operation in early 2023 seems extremely ambitious. The German state bears the costs for chartering the ships and expanding the infrastructure. They are given as three billion euros for the time being.
When the pipeline is finished, 8.5 billion cubic meters of gas can flow into the German network per year, which could come from Qatar, the USA or North Africa, for example. Once in operation, all four ships can manage 40 billion cubic meters per year, just as much as Nord Stream 1 delivered to Germany last year, with another 20 billion being forwarded to neighboring countries.
Wilhelmshaven becomes the German hydrogen hub
The special ships are to supply Germany with LNG for up to ten years. Two land-based terminals are planned in parallel, one of which will also be built in Wilhelmshaven and the second possibly in Stade on the Elbe. These are designed in such a way that they can later also accept liquid hydrogen. This can flow directly into rail tank cars, LNG barges or tankers, so that distant regions can also be supplied. A portion is regasified on site and injected into pipelines.
Wilhelmshaven has been chosen to become the German hydrogen hub. A terminal will also be built there that will be able to accept gaseous ammonia. It is to be produced in sun-rich countries from hydrogen generated with solar or wind power and nitrogen from the air. Ammonia is a chemical raw material that is used to make fertilizer, for example. But it can also be converted back into hydrogen. The detour could prove to be useful because hydrogen only liquefies at minus 253 degrees, while ammonia already liquefies at minus 33 degrees Celsius. That would make transporting the important molecules much easier.