Construction starts on green hydrogen project in Hamburg at site of former coal plant

Construction of an 100-megawatt (MW) electrolyser project to make green hydrogen has begun on the site of a former coal plant in Hamburg that was decommissioned in 2021. The municipal utility Hamburger Energiewerke (HEnW), one of the project partners, said that the groundbreaking showed that pioneering green hydrogen projects can be driven forward through local engagement.

“With wind energy in the north, connection to the supra-regional hydrogen network and innovative industrial companies, Hamburg offers ideal conditions for ramping up the hydrogen economy,” said Peter Tschentscher, mayor of Hamburg from the Social Democrats (SPD) at the ceremony. HEnW purchased the decommissioned coal plant from energy company Vattenfall in 2023.

The Moorburg plant is set to become one of the country’s first large-scale green hydrogen plants as Germany faces difficulties in ramping up a functioning market for the sustainable fuel. Once completed in 2027, the plant is supposed to use regionally sourced wind energy to produce 10,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per year. The clean fuel made with renewable energy can then be used in processes which are difficult to electrify directly, for example to produce low-carbon chemicals or in steel production. 

Despite the progress in Moorburg and billions of euros in subsidies, Germany is failing to meet its hydrogen goals, as forecasts for both demand and supply of green hydrogen have been revised down. The hydrogen economy faces a chicken-and-egg problem of demand and supply for the fuel as it remains too expensive and the scale of production too small. In October 2025, federal budget auditors called on the federal government to revise its hydrogen ambitions, arguing that “permanent state subsidies threaten to put further pressure on federal finances, which are already in disarray.”