On 6 November 2026, trial operation began in Lingen (Emsland) of an industrial-scale hydrogen-capable gas turbine. According to RWE and regional media reports, the facility was brought into operation for testing at the Emsland power station site; representatives from politics and business, including the Japanese ambassador and Lower Saxony state officials, are expected to attend the launch. The operator describes the turbine as a key component in converting the site to hydrogen as a fuel.
The gas turbine was developed in collaboration with the Japanese manufacturer Kawasaki Heavy Industries and is designed to run on hydrogen blends or entirely on hydrogen. RWE and municipal information websites note that the installation is part of the GET H2 Nukleus project, which aims to advance the production and use of green hydrogen at the site on an industrial scale. Electrolysers have already been operating at the site since 2026, feeding the first renewable hydrogen into regional infrastructure.
Fact check: The commissioning, its attribution to RWE and the cooperation with Kawasaki are documented both in NDR reporting on 6 November 2026 and in announcements from RWE and municipal project websites. Project descriptions identify Lingen as one of Germany’s most important sites for large-scale electrolysis projects; the GET H2 project website describes a planned expansion to several hundred megawatts of electrolysis capacity.
Trial operation of a hydrogen-capable gas turbine at the industrial site has both practical and symbolic significance. In practical terms, it will allow testing of how flexibly large power stations can switch between natural gas and hydrogen blends, or pure hydrogen, in future; symbolically, the project marks the transition from demonstration projects to technically significant facilities on a commercial scale. For the operators, a successful test would offer the possibility of continuing to use existing gas-fired power station capacity when electricity supply and generation fluctuate, while also reducing CO2 emissions, provided the hydrogen used is produced as “green” according to strict criteria.
Questions remain about long-term technical availability, the progress of certification for operation using 100 per cent green hydrogen, and the scale of future hydrogen supply and how it will be secured by contract. RWE has previously cited these points as prerequisites for commercial use.
Today’s start of testing is therefore a verifiable intermediate step in the transformation of the Lingen energy site; further tests and regulatory decisions will shape the next phase of implementation.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).