Luxembourg's 1st Hydrogen Station Inaugurated in Bettembourg

The inauguration of the first hydrogen station in the Grand Duchy took place in Bettembourg on Tuesday 26 September 2023, in the presence of Luxembourg's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Mobility and Public Works, François Bausch, the Minister for Energy, Claude Turmes, and the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development, Joëlle Welfring.

Also present on this occasion were representatives of CFL, TotalEnergies Marketing Luxembourg, WaterstofNet and the European Commission.

According to the ministries involved, the commissioning of this hydrogen filling station, which opened earlier this year, constitutes a key step in the implementation of Luxembourg's hydrogen strategy. This public hydrogen station is part of the European "H2Benelux" project, co-financed by the European Commission, as part of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme, and which aims to considerably extend the existing public hydrogen refuelling infrastructure and to expand the fleet of hydrogen vehicles in the Benelux.

This first public hydrogen station in Luxembourg is located in the ZAE Wolser A economic activity area in Bettembourg, at the CFL secure road centre (CRS), in the colours of TotalEnergies. The supply of hydrogen to light, commercial and heavy goods vehicles at 350 and 700 bar is now possible.

"The new European Regulation 2023/1804 of 13 September 2023 on the deployment of infrastructure for alternative fuels from the European Commission's 'Fit for 55' package, not only provides for the establishment of a European network of hydrogen filling stations no later than 2030, but also strongly recommends deploying these stations at multimodal hubs and therefore on the CFL multimodal platform," explained Minister Bausch. "I am therefore delighted that the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is already ensuring today that the required hydrogen infrastructure is deployed in the most promising locations and is capable of refuelling any type of road vehicle powered by hydrogen, in order to facilitate the decarbonisation of the transport sector."

Minister Turmes added: "Green hydrogen constitutes an important element of our strategy aimed at the decarbonisation of transport; it is a promising alternative in certain sectors that are difficult to decarbonise by direct electrification, such as the heavy goods vehicle sector. For this very first H2 station in Luxembourg, it was important to ensure that it sold exclusively renewable hydrogen."

Minister Welfring pointed out that the transport sector is currently responsible for 60% of Luxembourg's greenhouse gas emissions: "Compliance with our climate objectives inevitably involves an acceleration of the transition towards zero-emission mobility. Among the multiple measures to decarbonise the transport sector, renewable hydrogen will play an important role for means of transport not suitable for electrification."

For her part, Barbara Chevalier, CEO of CFL multimodal, noted: "The new H2 station fits perfectly with our vision of offering our customers more sustainable transport solutions, while helping to reduce their carbon footprint, including on pre- and post-road transport."

TotalEnergies has committed itself to carbon neutrality by 2050. "We are very pleased to be able to contribute to this with the opening of the country's first hydrogen refuelling station. A new step in the expansion of this energy and the support of our customers in this energy transition," elaborated Nicolas Leblond, Managing Director of TotalEnergies in Luxembourg.

Antoine Tournand, Vice President H2 at TotalEnergies Marketing & Services, added: "This new Bettembourg station is a central link in the network of more than 100 hydrogen stations for heavy goods vehicles that we want to build together with Air Liquide on major European roads and which will contribute to the decarbonisation of freight transport in Europe."

"H2Benelux, initiated and coordinated by WaterstofNet, is a project of capital importance since it connects the three Benelux member states by installing eight hydrogen refuelling stations at the most strategic locations. From now on, hydrogen vehicles can be refuelled in any Benelux country," said Adwin Martens, Chief Strategy Officer of WaterstofNet, congratulating those involved in this project.

Christian Faure, Head of Unit at the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA), concluded: "This is the fourth hydrogen station [of the H2Benelux project] commissioned with the support of the Connecting Europe Facility and more than 150 others are under construction. [...] By supporting this project, the European Union is contributing to the emergence of a hydrogen refuelling network, both at national and European level. As such, this achievement fully contributes to the objectives of the European Green Deal as well as those of the new, recently adopted regulation for the deployment of alternative fuel infrastructures."

(Photo credit: © SIP / Jean-Christophe Verhaegen)