Stade – As a centre for energy production, the federal state of Lower Saxony will play an even greater role in future in diversifying Germany's energy supply. An essential building block for this is the Hanseatic Energy Hub in Stade. As the first of Germany’s LNG schemes, the submission of the application documents means that the project is now able to officially start the permitting procedures for both the federal state’s own zero-emission terminal and the public port. To mark this key project milestone, Lower Saxony’s Minister for the Environment, Olaf Lies, and his ministerial colleague Dr Bernd Althusmann, Minister for Economic Affairs, met today in Stade with the project managers to discuss the next steps.
“The construction of the Hanseatic Energy Hub in Stade is a very important step on route to independence from Russian gas. At the same time, however, we’re also taking a big step towards a climate-neutral future for Germany. Without green gas we will not be able to secure Germany’s energy supply,” says Environment and Energy Minister Olaf Lies. "Together with the floating LNG import facility already planned for Wilhelmshaven for the winter of 2022, with another one earmarked for 2023, as well as the stationary LNG terminals in Stade and Wilhelmshaven, Lower Saxony will be “green gas ready” and also prepared for the necessary energy imports. I’m very glad that we’re tackling this gigantic task together in close collaboration with the Ministry for Economic Affairs. Employment, climate and the economy always need to be jointly considered in conjunction with one another and I’m very sure that we’ll solve this enormous task for the future together.”
Economic Affairs Minister Bernd Althusmann emphasises: “Lower Saxony’s ports play a key role in Germany’s future energy supply. The enormous energy needs of our national economy mean that we need the two sites in Stade and Wilhelmshaven, which will give us another piece of independence from Russian gas supplies. Given the current situation, time is the crucial factor. As Chairman of the Supervisory Board, I’m delighted that the NPorts team have managed to compile the planning documents at short notice and that we’ve made great progress with the project as a result. The ports of Lower Saxony are sending out a clear signal to build up the LNG infrastructure quickly and in a future-proof manner.”
The approval process for the LNG, bio-LNG and synthetic methane terminal is being carried out in accordance with the Federal Immission Control Regulation (BImSchV) and is managed by the Lüneburg Trade Supervisory Office as the authority responsible for conducting proceedings. With the growing global supply of climate-neutral energy sources, the hub will also be used to import hydrogen-based energy sources such as ammonia in a second step.
In addition, port operator Niedersachsen Ports (NPorts) is planning to extend the public industrial port with two jetties that will not only enable LNG carriers up to Q-Max size to dock, but will also provide bunker services. The application to obtain planning approval for the harbour construction was submitted today to the responsible authority, the NLWKN (Lower Saxony State Agency for Water Management, Coastal and Nature Conservation).
“Over the last few months, our technical team has made a tremendous sprint to develop the approval application documents. This is a great achievement that helps put Stade in a leading position as an important centre for the energy transition and security,” says Holger Banik, Managing Director of Niedersachsen Ports GmbH & Co. KG and JadeWeserPort Realisierungs GmbH & Co. KG.
With the Hanseatic Energy Hub (HEH), a future-flexible energy import infrastructure is being created in Stade Industrial Park that, from 2026 at the latest, will be able to cover around 15 per cent of Germany’s gas demand with a total capacity of 13.3 billion cubic metres of natural gas.
“Today we’ve reached an important milestone for the project delivery. The very positive results from the recently concluded expression-of-interest procedure show that the market has taken note of the German political signals and is backing the Stade terminal location,” says Johann Killinger, Managing Partner of the Hanseatic Energy Hub. “What is needed now is a swift translation of the political signals into concrete measures: accelerated permitting procedures, flexible and speedy processes at the Federal regulator and, above all, equal treatment of all LNG projects. Only if these conditions are met can the enormous feat of gaining access to the global gas market and becoming independent of Russian gas supplies succeed.”
Download press photo
About HEH
The Hanseatic Energy Hub (HEH) is a terminal for liquefied gases at the Stade Industrial Park. The independent hub diversifies German industry’s long-term import needs for affordable energy. In the first expansion phase, an emission-free LNG terminal, whose infrastructure is also approved for bio-LNG and SNG, is set to go into operation from 2026. It is planned to have a 13.3 billion m³/a regasification capacity and a 21.7 GW feed-in capacity. By developing new climate-neutral energy sources, the hub will also facilitate the import of hydrogen-based energy carriers. HEH shareholders are the Buss Group, the gas infrastructure operator Fluxys, the Partners Group and the chemical specialist Dow.
Press contact
Rebecca Ritter
on behalf of Hanseatic Energy Hub GmbH
c/o navos - Public Dialogue Consultants GmbH
Glashüttenstraße 79
20357 Hamburg
Phone: 040 / 696 387 64 4
E-mail: dialog@hanseatic-energy-hub.de