Michael de Laine

By Michael de Laine, The Copenhagen Voice, 27 November 2009

Funding of €5 million for R&D and demonstration of a hydrogen refuelling station and fuel cell vehicles in Holstebro has been secured. The LINK2009 project will contribute to the overall efforts of the Scandinavian Hydrogen Highway Partnership of becoming one among the first regions in the world where hydrogen powered cars are marketed. The station and vehicles are expected to be in operation from the year end 2010/2011.

The full financing of €5 million for research, development and demonstration of a 700 bar hydrogen refuelling station and fuel cell vehicles in the city of Holstebro in West Denmark has now been secured.

The project, called LINK2009, will act as the next step for hydrogen for transport in Denmark during 2010, thus contributing to the overall efforts of the Scandinavian Hydrogen Highway Partnership of becoming one among the first regions in the world where hydrogen powered cars are introduced on the market.

The station and vehicles are planned to commence operation around the year end 2010/2011.

The successful West Denmark Project and the recent Copenhagen Project have together secured an additional seven hydrogen stations and 15 fuel cell vehicles in operation in Denmark (out of a total of 12 stations and 23 vehicles in Denmark, covering both road and non-road use).

The first ideas for the LINK2009 project arose during 2008 and first round of funding from the Danish Energy Agency program EUDP was secured in summer 2009. This was also the start of the research and development of the second-generation fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen station, thus pushing the technology further from the first-generation technologies that were developed and tested in the previous projects in Denmark.

In late 2009 the last round of funding for the demonstration of the second-generation technology was secured, also from the Danish EUDP program, totalling the public support to €1.9 million out of a total budget of €5 million, with the remainder provided by companies and vehicle end-users.

In the LINK2009 project, a 700-bar hydrogen refuelling station will be established in the city of Holstebro in West Denmark by year end 2010/2011. Already two hydrogen stations are operated in the city for supply of hydrogen to various non-road fuel cell vehicles. The new 700 bar station will be owned and operated by the local energy company Vestforsyning and hydrogen will be supplied from the existing central electrolysis production plant that the company established in early 2008.

Holstebro municipality will receive three fuel cell vehicles as part of the LINK2009 project and will use these for daily transportation purposes within the municipality departments.

The Danish company H2 Logic will provide fuel cell systems for the vehicles and construct the 700-bar hydrogen station.

As well as being part of the Hydrogen Link Denmark network and contributing to the efforts of the Scandinavian Hydrogen Highway Partnership, LINK2009 is also a continuation of the public-private partnership model that was introduced in previous hydrogen projects in Denmark.

The two main actors in the LINK2009 project, Holstebro municipality and the energy company Vestforsyning, have joined forces in creating the local initiative Climate Circles.

The purpose of Climate Circle is to ensure, coordinate and expand cooperation within the business area of renewable energy in the greater Holstebro area in West Denmark.

The motivations for Climate Circle and partners to support and catalyze the LINK2009 project are clear, says John Sohn, the manager of Climate Circle.

“If we are to move away from fossil fuels in the long term, we have to invest now in developing the alternative solutions,” John Sohn says. “The planned opening of an additional hydrogen station in Holstebro and further fuel cell vehicles shows that the Holstebro area is on the forefront. We don’t expect to become the a centre of gravity for future fuel supply worldwide, instead the potential to produce fuels for transport locally whilst also ensuring business potentials on zero emission transport technologies are sufficient motivation for us.”