INTERVIEW: All new Mitsubishi Power gas turbine projects in Europe are hydrogen ready, CEO says

Gas turbine demand in Europe is booming for manufacturer Mitsubishi Power, and all the orders in the works are for hydrogen-ready technology, the company's CEO for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Javier Cavada, told Platts in an interview.

The company has landed turbine orders for large-scale power plants in North Africa and the Middle East this year, and sees strong demand in Europe too.

Mitsubishi's turbines are already capable of firing hydrogen mixes of up to 30%, with plans to achieve 100% hydrogen capabilities by 2030.

"Everything that we are delivering, building or bidding has already 30% hydrogen blending capability," Cavada said. "From the middle of 2025 onwards, we will start to move to 50%. And before the end of this decade, we will be able to have units that will be able to burn 100% zero carbon molecules."

Cavada sees firm demand for combined cycle gas turbines in Europe and emerging economies, and the company said its most popular model was its J-series Air-Cooled, or JAC, gas turbine series, with capacity in the region of 400-600 MW.

The executive had recently returned from a business trip to Germany, where he noted strong demand.

Power plant orders

Earlier in April, Mitsubishi Power received an order to supply six M501JAC hydrogen-ready turbines to projects in Saudi Arabia totaling 3.6 GW.

The turbines will be installed at the Rumah-1 and Al-Nairyah-1 baseload power plants in the country's central and eastern regions, accounting for 2.5% of Saudi Arabia's power grid capacity.

"These baseload plants will ensure grid stability while supporting the growing integration of renewable energy sources, which are becoming an increasing share of the Kingdom's energy mix," Mitsubishi Power said.

The projects are being developed by Saudi Electricity Company, Acwa Power, and Korea Electric Power Corporation.

The company received an order in February for two of its M701JAC gas turbines, capable of co-firing hydrogen, for the Al Wahda open-cycle gas turbine power plant in Morocco.

The plant, owned and operated by the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water, is due to start operations in 2027.

Morocco is targeting over 52% renewable power generation by 2030.

Fuel availability

Mitsubishi has validated a 30% hydrogen blend for its JAC turbine at the Takasago Hydrogen Park in Japan with a rated output of 566 MW.

The company plans to make the 50% hydrogen-capable turbines commercially available by 2030.

Cavada said that fuel availability was a key barrier to running higher blends.

"You need huge volumes of hydrogen, because we are using today huge volumes of natural gas."

The company's Japanese test facility has tank storage of 350 cylinders, which is sufficient to run the turbine with a 30% blend for one hour, he said.

From a technical perspective, Cavada said hydrogen was a better molecule than methane for combustion.

"Natural gas has a big advantage of around 50, 60 years of development of the value chain and supply chain and very low cost," he said, but added that hydrogen would catch up.

"Scale is the key to reducing the price," Cavada said.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, last assessed the cost of "green hydrogen" production via alkaline electrolysis in Germany, backed by renewable power purchase agreements, at Eur9.08/kg ($10.03/kg) on April 9, down from a peak of over Eur14.50/kg in mid-December.

The assessment reflects one possible pathway for producing EU Renewable Energy Directive-compliant green hydrogen.

Mitsubishi is preparing to start its 220-MW Advanced Clean Energy Storage hub in Utah, a joint venture with Chevron, combining green hydrogen production and storage to supply a CCGT blending with shale gas.

The ACES project has installed all its electrolyzers and is undergoing commissioning for hydrogen production and storage. The utility-scale project is the first in the US for green hydrogen production storage.

Ammonia co-firing

Mitsubishi Power is also developing ammonia-fired turbines in the region of 50-100 MW, with interest mainly coming for intermittent, backup power generation.

The company has signed a memorandum of understanding with the UK's Centrica and Ireland's Bord Gais Energy to develop Europe's first ammonia-fired power generation facility.

The site in Ireland is expected to utilize low-carbon ammonia sourced through Centrica's global network to power the Whitegate CCGT power station in Cork.

Utilities in Japan and South Korea are heavily focused on co-firing ammonia in coal-fired plants for decarbonization efforts, though plans in Europe are less prominent.

On carbon capture, Cavada said the company was looking at options for its plants, primarily focused on using the CO2 for other industrial processes such as fuel or tire manufacturing, "but frankly, that will come later. Carbon capture will have a role, but it will be a smaller role."