H-100 gas turbines to feature in heat and power plant at Volkswagen facility

Volkswagen AG has tasked Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Europe (MHPS Europe) with the construction of a gas-and-steam power plant in Wolfsburg, in order to modernize its cogeneration plant "Heizkraftwerk Wolfsburg-West". The new units will be constructed on a turnkey basis.

The two coal-fired blocks currently in operation at the "Heizkraftwerk West" plant, on the automotive factory grounds, will be replaced with a gas-fired double block. The new gas-and-steam plant, with a total output of 288 megawatts (MW) of electricity and approx. 265 MW of heat, will go into commercial operation in the fall of 2022.

The EPC agreement (engineering, procurement and construction) between Volkswagen and MHPS Europe includes construction and commissioning and the delivery of two H-100 class gas turbines, two waste heat recovery boilers, two steam turbines and generators and ancillary systems. A long-term service contract is also part of the agreement.

"The awarding of this order is further evidence of our outstanding expertise as an energy plant constructor and as an energy solutions provider", says Thomas Bohner, CEO at MHPS Europe in Duisburg. As part of the MHPS Group, with operations worldwide that employ roughly 20,000 people, the company has access to a wide-ranging suite of technologies for safe and environmentally-friendly power generation.

Going forward, power plants will be capable of producing electricity that is fully CO2-neutral. "In the Netherlands, we are testing how hydrogen, derived from renewable energy sources, can be used in a gas-fired power plant", Bohner adds. Synthetic natural gas, produced in power-to-gas plants, can also be used in generating electricity. Thomas Bohner: "The know-how and the necessary technologies are already available for use."