Russia's first “green” hydrogen test site goes into operation in Sakhalin

The opening ceremony of Russia's first “green” hydrogen test site was held on 7/16 in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the capital of Russia's Sakhalin Oblast. The test targets are production, transportation, storage, and use of hydrogen using Russian domestic technology. We aim for future practical application through testing.

At the test site, hydrogen is separated from water by electrolysis using solar panels. The first phase will generate 5 cubic meters of hydrogen per hour, and the plan is to expand the capacity to 30 cubic meters per hour in the second phase. First Vice Minister Pavel Sorokin of the Ministry of Energy expressed confidence that the operation of the test site shows that Russia has global technology in the field of hydrogen production (Tass 7/16).

Along with the opening, 4 projects were launched. The first project is an autonomous power supply to mobile phone base stations along scattered roads. There are dozens of such base stations in Sakhalin Oblast, and over 400 throughout Russia. Instead of diesel power generation and monthly delivery of diesel fuel, an autonomous hydrogen power plant will be created here.

The second is the conversion from diesel power generation to a green hydrogen power generation system in villages isolated from the surroundings and difficult to access, and the third is the construction of mobile hydrogen power plants that are intended to be used at sites such as emergencies, disasters, and accidents in critical infrastructure.

The fourth is the replacement of diesel fuel with hydrogen in the urban transportation sector. The Sakhalin region government has already revealed that two Russian commercial vehicle manufacturers are conducting tests using hydrogen fuel cells as a power source at the test site.

The test site is also part of Russia's Eastern Hydrogen Cluster (Note) project. Hydrogen produced in the same cluster is expected to be exported to Asian countries centered on China and South Korea and used in domestic projects in the future (Interfax 3/5).

Note: A plan to establish a hydrogen production base in Sakhalin Oblast was signed by the Sakhalin Oblast Government, Ministry of Far East/Arctic Development, and Rosatom in April 2021. In addition to the test site, the cluster also includes a blue hydrogen plant (annual production capacity 0.03 million6,500 tons) using methane gas as a raw material, which is scheduled to be put into operation in 2029.