Solar Millennium AG has started realisation of a Blue Tower in the town of Herten, a demonstration project for the generation of hydrogen and electricity from the sustainable use of regenerative feedstock.

According to the company, an important element of the financing of the Blue Tower is the project funding of about 7.1 million Euros to the project corporation H2Herten GmbH, which has now been approved by the federal state government of North-Rhine Westphalia. The total investment in the project is about 24.6 million Euros.

By investing into this demonstration project, Solar Millennium is also aiming at significantly increasing the operation time of solar thermal power plants through hybrid operation to make electricity production round the clock possible.

Both solar energy and clean product gas, the so-called Blue Gas, from the utilisation of regenerative feedstock will be used.

In this way, the power plants will be able to contribute in a climate-friendly and reliable way to cover a greater part of the demand for electricity.

Christian Beltle, CEO of Solar Millennium, sees great opportunities in combining solar thermal power generation with Blue Tower technology.

"A decisive advantage of solar thermal power plants, when compared to other forms of renewable energy, is the possibility to produce electricity even when there is no sunshine but yet a high demand for electricity thanks to the use of thermal storage. By combining solar thermal power generation with Blue Gas in hybrid operation, we can further expand this advantage," said Beltle.

The Blue Tower in Herten will use cuttings from greenery along roadsides in the Ruhr region as feedstock to produce a clean, hydrogen-rich product gas which is both to be processed into hydrogen and also used for generating electricity in a combined heat and power plant.

Around 12,000 households can be supplied by the plant capacity of 13 Megawatts (thermal) with electricity generated in a sustainable manner. The additionally produced hydrogen is to be supplied to the hydrogen competence centre - a scheme by the town on the old mine area 'Auf Ewald' conceptually integrated into the Blue Tower project.