German energy company EnBW has ordered one of Germany’s first hydrogen-ready gas turbine power plants at its generating site in Stuttgart-Münster.

Now, the site generates heat and electricity from three coal-fired boilers, three waste-fired boilers and three steam turbines.

The plan is to replace these units with hydrogen-ready equipment sourced from Siemens.

EnBW is also planning to convert coal-fired sites in Altbach/Deizisau and Heilbronn to hydrogen.

Altogether, this will cost €1.6bn and produce 1.5GW.

The sites will also pump hot water to heat 28,500 homes, 1,400 businesses and 380 public facilities in and around Stuttgart.

The converted sites will use more renewable energy, as well. EnBW said green generation already accounts for 59% of its installed capacity.

EnBW said the switch to hydrogen required three years of planning and approval processes and two years of construction to create a plant capable of supplying 124MW of electrical and 370MW of thermal energy.

EnBW chief executive Georg Stamatelopoulos said hydrogen offered a solution to the inherent unreliability of weather-dependent energy sources, but could not be funded entirely by the private sector.

“The power plants needed for the energy transition cannot be financed by the market alone,” he said.

“This is why the German government needs to create a framework of regulatory incentives for more investment as part of its programme for the first 100 days in power.”

EnBW’s chief operating officer Peter Heydecker said the project showed that the energy transition was under way.

“EnBW is currently building half of all gas-fired power plants now under construction in Germany,” he said.

“Solely by switching from coal to natural gas, we are making dispatchable generation significantly more climate-friendly with around 50% lower carbon emissions.

“From the mid-2030s, we expect to take the next step and, after a second fuel switch, operate the plant on up to 100% low-carbon hydrogen, provided that this is available in sufficient quantities.”