Lively exchange at citizens’ information event in October

• Public participation as a win-win situation – the project partners of the “Bad Lauchstädt Energy Park” can look back on the information event with satisfaction 

After the “Bad Lauchstädt Energy Park” was able to start operation following the approval of funding in September, the project partners organised the first public information market on the site of the underground gas storage facility of VNG Gasspeicher GmbH in Bad Lauchstädt on Saturday, 2 October. The aim was not only to provide information about the hydrogen project as soon as the funding decision was received, but also to engage in an active dialogue with citizens and residents as well as interested members of the public.

The 90 or so visitors brought with them many interested questions, both about the technical background to the project and about the planned construction measures on site. Most of these questions were answered directly on site by the experts involved in the project, who presented their respective areas of the project – generation, storage & transport, or utilisation & research – at the corresponding topic stands. 

However, it was not only the visitors who received information, but also the experts themselves – the project partners gained a great deal of inspiration for their further work on the Bad Lauchstädt Energy Park from the input of interested visitors. The entire team is delighted with the lively dialogue at the event and considers the information market a success. Early involvement of citizens and residents is an important concern for the consortium and contributes to the success of the project. 

The “Bad Lauchstädt Energy Park” is being funded by the BMWi as a real-world laboratory for the production, storage, transport and marketing of green hydrogen. This climate-friendly hydrogen is to be produced by a large-scale electrolysis plant using renewable energy from a newly planned wind farm and transported to potential consumers from the chemical industry in neighbouring Leuna via a natural gas pipeline that is to be rededicated. In addition, preparatory measures and investigations into the large-volume storage of green hydrogen in a salt cavern are being initiated. In this way, it is being investigated under real conditions how climate-neutral hydrogen can also be produced and utilised technically and economically on an industrial scale along the entire value chain. The partners involved in the project are Uniper, Terrawatt Planungsgesellschaft mbH, VNG Gasspeicher GmbH, VNG AG, ONTRAS Gastransport GmbH and the DBI Gastechnologisches Institut gGmbH.