Wärtsilä tests world’s first large-scale 100% hydrogen engine on Spain’s grid

Wärtsilä Tests World’s First Large-Scale 100% Hydrogen Engine on Spain’s Power Grid

Finnish technology group Wärtsilä has begun testing what it describes as the world’s first large-scale engine running entirely on hydrogen, feeding electricity directly into Spain’s national grid from its laboratory in Bermeo, in the country’s Basque region.

The company announced on June 11 that its Wärtsilä 31H2 engine — billed as the world’s largest pure hydrogen engine — is undergoing validation at the Bermeo facility in northern Spain, where it is operating on 100% hydrogen fuel under real grid conditions. Customers from around the world witnessed the engine in operation during June as part of its commercial validation process.wartsila

How It Works

The hydrogen powering the engine is supplied by a nearby electrolyzer operated by Air Liquide, according to S&P Global. The engine is designed for utility-scale power plants in the hundreds-of-megawatts range and can ramp from zero to full output in two minutes, a capability Wärtsilä says could help address grid curtailment as countries add more wind and solar capacity.spglobal

The company’s V31 medium-bore engines produce 12 MW on natural gas and can already blend up to 25% hydrogen without infrastructure modifications, though power output on pure hydrogen is lower, Anders Lindberg, president of Wärtsilä’s energy division, told S&P Global’s Platts. Full performance data will be disclosed once validation is complete.spglobal

Wider Implications

The demonstration builds on years of development. In 2020, Wärtsilä ran hydrogen blend tests at a WEC Energy Group power plant in Michigan, achieving 25% hydrogen blending without engine modifications. The company had targeted a pure hydrogen engine concept by 2025 and commercialization by the end of the decade.wartsila

Rasmus Teir, Wärtsilä’s Director of Technology Strategy and Decarbonisation, said in the company’s statement that the focus must now shift to creating the right regulatory and investment environment to scale the technology. The cost of EU-compliant green hydrogen production via alkaline electrolysis in Spain stood at €6.29 per kilogram as of June 10, according to Platts assessments.wartsila

Wärtsilä is also seeing growing interest from data center operators seeking off-grid power, as well as from mining, cement, and textile industries, Lindberg said. “We have all the technology that is needed,” he told Platts. “It’s just how can we speed it up.”spglobal