Consortium with SOCAR participation plans to start construction of electrolysis plant in Europe in 2025

SOCAR Energy Switzerland, the Swiss subsidiary of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, plans to start construction of an electrolysis plant in the municipality of Freienbach in Switzerland in 2025 together with Alpiq and EW Hofe, reads SOCAR's 2023 Sustainable Development Report, published on the company's website, Report informs.

"The Consortium of Alpiq, EW Höfe, and SOCAR Energy Switzerland will install an electrolysis facility with a capacity of up to 10 MW in Freienbach (SZ). Planning process is about to end and the construction is scheduled to start in 2024. The facility will be capable of generating between 1,000 and 1,200 tons of green hydrogen annually once it is fully operational, as stated by EW Höfe. According to the company, the green hydrogen will be transported via a pipeline from the production facility at the existing former substation to the current Fuchsberg motorway service area, where SOCAR will install hydrogen filling stations on both sides of the motorway," reads the report.

"In addition, SOCAR Energy Switzerland commissioned the first hydrogen filling station on a Swiss motorway at the Grauholz Süd filling station near Bern, where up to 150 trucks can be filled here per day. The company is also expanding the energy charging business for battery electric vehicles. The company currently operates 20 fast-charging facilities, predominantly on motorways and in the wider Zurich city area, and it is planned to roll out 100 fast battery charging facilities in Switzerland by 2026. By the end of 2023, the total number of fuel filling stations of SOCAR Energy Switzerland reached 206."

On July 1, 2023, SOCAR opened the first hydrogen filling station in Switzerland, “Grauholz Sud”, on the motorway near Bern.