Engie, Air Liquide Ink Green Hydrogen Pact

Plentiful Provencale sunshine may enable the production of green hydrogen which can be stored underground in salt caverns and piped into industrial sites or vehicles in southern France, following a co-operation agreement between Engie and Air Liquide, Engie said November 13.

Users in the Durance, Luberon and Verdon urban area (DLVA) will benefit from this zero-carbon form of energy, if Hygreen Provence makes commercial sense. The object is the production of 1,300 GWh of solar electricity, equivalent to the annual residential consumption of about 450,000 people, together with the production of renewable hydrogen on an industrial scale through water electrolysis.

The project will be developed in several phases with the first deliverables envisaged by the end of 2021 and a possible final phase in 2027. Eventually, several tens of thousands of metric tons of renewable hydrogen could be produced in this way every year to meet a very broad spectrum of uses, Engie said.

The DLVA urban area enjoys one of the highest levels of sunshine in France, with an average of 1,450 hours/yr. There is also substantial land availability and the presence of a salt cavity storage site able to accommodate the large-scale centralised production of renewable hydrogen.

The DLVA region urban area is committed to supporting the development of a project of a scale and nature unprecedented in France. The hydrogen can  be used to power cars and trucks; or to provide heat and cooling for an urban eco-district; or in industrial processes.