The four-year, EU-funded HYFLEXPOWER project has officially started on 1 May 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the kick-off meeting took place as a virtual event on 11 and 12 May. It was attended by all members of the project consortium and a representative of the European Commission. The project partners presented their planned work in HYFLEXPOWER and agreed the next steps. Uwe Gruschka, Global Head of Technology and Innovation at Siemens Energy, highlighted the strategic importance of HYFLEXPOWER not only for the project partners, but also for Europe. Mr Gruschka expressed confidence that the project will make significant impact on the decarbonisation of the European industry.

HYFLEXPOWER will be the first demonstration of a fully integrated Power-to-H2-to-Power industrial scale power plant including an advanced high-hydrogen dry-low emissions gas turbine. The project will update and enhance an Engie Solutions operated thermal power plant including a Centrax packaged Siemens SGT-400 gas turbine in France. It will include the integration of a Siemens electrolyser to generate green hydrogen from excess renewable energy and necessary storage capacity. The SGT-400 gas turbine will be upgraded to convert the stored hydrogen into electrical and thermal energy. The final goal is a validation with up to 100% H2, demonstrating carbon-free energy production from stored excess renewable energy.