Basel – Industriellen Werke Basel (IWB) and Fritz Meyer AG want to boost the supply of hydrogen from renewable electricity by building a production plant at the port of Birsfelden BL. Starting in 2026, 1500 tons of green hydrogen are to be produced there annually.
The Basel energy utility IWB and the filling station operator Fritz Meyer AG have started planning for the joint construction of a production plant for green hydrogen. According to a media release, the plant has a capacity of 15 megawatts and is expected to produce 1,500 tons of hydrogen annually from renewable electricity starting in August 2026. This makes it one of the largest green hydrogen plants in the country, he said. The power for the operation is to be supplied by the Birsfelden power plant. Further planning and implementation will be handled by greenH2 AG, a joint venture between IWB and Fritz Meyer AG.
The sustainable fuel will be transported by trucks and via a hydrogen pipeline. “In the near future, this could allow industrial companies in the port and along the Rhine to be connected directly to a hydrogen pipeline,” the statement said. Thanks to its location on the Rhine, Basel has the prerequisites for creating a cross-border hydrogen economy in the France-Switzerland-Germany border triangle.
Green hydrogen is a key building block of Switzerland’s climate strategy, according to the release. The EU considers hydrogen to be indispensable for the success of the energy transition and is working on a central, European hydrogen network. ce/heg
