After winning EU support for two clean-energy projects in the North Sea Port of Wilhelmshaven this year, German utility Uniper plans to focus on early talks with a large customer and take steps towards developing hydrogen storage facilities.

As part of the company's decarbonisation plan, the state-owned firm wants to transform the deepwater port into a receiving point for ammonia containing imported hydrogen and then store and transport it.

In an interview with Handelsblatt published on Friday, Chief Operating Officer Holger Creetz stated that "this year we want to make tangible progress with (steelmaker), Salzgitter and... intensify our hydrogen storage project."

The European Commission selected Uniper's ammonia plant and a plan to build a 1 Gigawatt (GW), electrolysis plant that would produce hydrogen using local renewable energy as Projects of Common Interest last month.

Kreetz stated that being on the PCI list has advantages in terms of planning and speeding up our projects.

Uniper's strategy is to convert all of its natural gas operations to hydrogen in order to meet climate goals and to supply customers. The company's former focus on Russian gas dried up by 2022, and it had to be bailed-out by the German Government.

In April, Salzgitter, Uniper and other companies announced that they would work together to deliver up to 20,000 tons of green hydrogen annually to Salzgitter’s plant. A pipeline from Wilhelmshaven is still being built. Green hydrogen is produced using renewable energy.

Salzgitter will get its hydrogen from Uniper’s electrolysis facility, of which a 200-megawatt section should be in operation by 2028.

Uniper is aiming to have 600 gigawatt-hours (GWh), of hydrogen storage capacity, by 2030. The company will be repurposing its existing gas storage caverns and building new ones. Vera Eckert, Tom Kaeckenhoff and Friederike Heine edited this article.