BASF CEO, Martin Brudermüller, Ph.D., and RWE CEO Markus Krebber, Ph.D., accompanied by chairman of the mining, chemical and energy industries union (IG BCE), Michael Vassiliadis, have presented a project to make industrial production sustainable and future-proof. The CEOs of BASF and RWE have signed a letter of intent covering a wide-ranging cooperation for the creation of additional capacities for renewable electricity and the use of technologies for climate protection.
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The project envisions an offshore wind farm with a capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW) to provide the BASF Ludwigshafen chemical site with green electricity and enable CO2-free production of hydrogen. The aim is to electrify the production processes for basic chemicals, which are currently based on fossil fuels.
This will involve utilizing CO2-free technologies such as electrically heated steam cracker furnaces to produce petrochemicals. BASF is working with partners on developing these technologies.
Vassiliadis said, “Here, two strong partners are making climate-friendly transformation and energy transition tangible and concrete. We stand behind this major project because it can be a symbol for the innovative power of industry and its employees. In many places, they are working with great passion and expertise to shape the transformation. They deserve all the support they can get.”
Brudermüller said, “Without the availability of sufficient volumes of electricity from renewable sources at competitive prices, our future transformation will not be possible! This task is only achievable with innovative and intensive cooperation between politics and industry. And it requires collaboration across the value chains. In our partnership between RWE as a leading company in power generation and BASF in chemicals, we bring together the necessary prerequisites and the will to shape things.”
Krebber added, “Coupling a new offshore wind farm already in the planning stage to an industrial customer such as BASF, who will convert its production to green electricity and hydrogen on this basis, would be a first for Germany. The realization of our proposal would represent a true acceleration of the expansion of renewable energies. Of course, there are still some open questions, but we want to push this forward–the faster, the better. This is how we will shape the energy transition.”
