Mayer Brown advised Raffinerie Heide on joint venture for the production of green hydrogen

Mayer Brown represented Raffinerie Heide GmbH as majority shareholder in the formation of the partly publicly funded joint venture "H2 Westküste GmbH" with Orsted Wind Power GmbH, a subsidiary of listed offshore wind energy company Orsted A/S, and EDF Deutschland GmbH, a subsidiary of French listed electricity company Électricité de France SA. The joint venture will construct and operate a 30 MW electrolysis plant for the production of green hydrogen from wind power on the site of Raffinerie Heide as part of the WESTKÜSTE100 project.

A consortium comprising ten partners will deliver the WESTKÜSTE100 project, which will produce green hydrogen and establish a regional hydrogen economy on an industrial scale to help address climate change.

To date, the project WESTKÜSTE100 is the first real-laboratory project to receive funding approval from the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy. The funding volume of EUR 30 million allows the first phase of the project — the construction and commissioning of the electrolysis plant on an industrial scale. The total investment volume of the project is EUR 89 million.

Raffinerie Heide, with sites in Hemmingstedt and Brunsbüttel, is the northernmost oil refinery in Germany. The main products are aviation turbine fuel, heating oil, but also petrochemical products. The total production capacity is 4.5 million tonnes/year.

The Mayer Brown team led by Dr. Malte Richter (Frankfurt) included: Corporate & Securities – partner Andrew Stewart (London), senior associate Tina Hoffmann (Frankfurt), Antitrust – associate Philipp Studt (Brussels), Real Estate – counsel Dr. Jürgen Streng (Düsseldorf) and Employment & Benefits – counsel Vanessa Klesy (Frankfurt).