Development of the first public hydrogen station in Luxembourg
Luxembourg – On 14th September 2022, François Bausch, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Mobility and Public Works, and Claude Turmes, Minister for Energy, in the presence of representatives of TotalEnergies Marketing Luxembourg, Nicolas Leblond and Eric Bleyer, gave a presentation on the development of the first public hydrogen station in Luxembourg.
The first public hydrogen refuelling station in Luxembourg will be put into service by the end of 2022/beginning of 2023 by TotalEnergies Marketing Luxembourg. This first station in the Grand Duchy will supply hydrogen to light vehicles, commercial vehicles and heavy goods vehicles and will be created in the ZAE Wolser A in Bettembourg, at the secure road centre (“CSR”) of the Eurohub South of CFL, as part of the European "H2Benelux" project.
This project, launched by the European Commission, aims to create eight hydrogen refuelling stations in the Benelux, including one in Luxembourg. A consortium of eight companies, including TotalEnergies, which has committed to implementing the hydrogen refuelling station in Luxembourg. In addition to this commitment, TotalEnergies plans to build a new multi-energy station in the Grand Duchy, which will offer, among other things, electric charging stations as well as the distribution of hydrogen. Given the innovative nature of the multi-energy site, the Government welcomes the initiative and supports TotalEnergies as far as possible.
"The transition to sustainable mobility is an urgent necessity. Mobility is at the heart of the daily life of European citizens. The deployment of a reliable network for the supply of alternative transport fuels is therefore crucial to cope with the forthcoming ban on fossil fuel cars, contribute to the achievement of the Green Deal targets and to achieve carbon neutrality in Europe by 2050. The opening of this hydrogen refuelling station in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is a key step in the development of an integrated, low-carbon European transport network," says Richard Ferrer, head of alternative fuels at CINEA, the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency.
"Hydrogen refuelling stations, and in particular those ready to supply hydrogen fuel cell trucks will play an important role in decarbonising the transport sector in the future. In the ‘Fit for 55’ package proposed by the European Commission to reduce the EU's CO₂ emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990, obligations to equip the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) and in particular the multimodal hubs are formulated. I am therefore delighted that the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is already ensuring that the necessary alternative fuel infrastructure will be deployed to facilitate the transition to these technologies," says François Bausch, Minister for Mobility and Public Works.
"Hydrogen is a promising alternative in certain sectors that are difficult to decarbonise by direct electrification, such as the heavy goods vehicle sector: it allows energy to be stored and released without a carbon footprint. However, only renewable hydrogen produced from renewable energies does not cause greenhouse gas emissions,” explains Claude Turmes, Minister for Energy. The NECP makes the certification and supply of 'green hydrogen' a prerequisite for the operation of hydrogen stations.
"Reinventing energy production and consumption to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 together with society and solve the climate challenge. This is the ambition of TotalEnergies, a major player in the energy transition. Therefore, we are proud to announce the opening of the first hydrogen station in Luxembourg at the end of 2022/early 2023", states Eric Bleyer, Director of Mobility & New Energies at TotalEnergies in Luxembourg.
"Hydrogen is one of the building blocks of TotalEnergies' strategy for mobility, in particular in European long-haul transport", says Antoine Tournand, Vice President, Hydrogen for Mobility. "The completion of the first H₂ station in Luxembourg is an integral part of our objective to directly or indirectly operate a network of more than 100 stations in Europe over the next decade. We are proud to contribute to the European effort and in particular Luxembourg's effort to ensure the energy transition in mobility.”