LIQVIS (a subsidiary of the energy company Uniper) opened its first permanent public filling station for liquefied natural gas (LNG) on Monday November 5. This marks another step in the development of a network of LNG filling stations aimed at meeting demand and the next phase in the company’s ongoing effort to expand LNG in the heavy vehicle sector. The station is one of the first permanent LNG filling stations in Germany and was built at a strategic junction in Grünheide just outside Berlin. Grünheide has an especially high volume of delivery vehicles and the filling station is able to fulfill demand for LNG due to its excellent accessibility for logistics companies and heavy transport vehicles.
This is the first filling station that LIQVIS has established through the EU’s “Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for Transport” program – the company received up to 9.6 million euros in funding from Brussels. Additional filling stations are planned for central locations such as Hamburg, Hanover, Kassel, Munich, Kamen, Ulm and Cologne. Meanwhile, in France and Belgium, three new filling stations each are planned for Metz, Calais and Vitrolles as well as in Liege, Antwerp and Brussels in order to continue to expand the supply of LNG.
The Grünheide location will allow two LNG vehicles to fill up with liquefied natural gas simultaneously round the clock, seven days a week. Depending on the tank size, a single refueling only takes between four and eight minutes and can be sufficient for a route of up to 1,600 km. The new station is open to the public and provides easy access to transport companies at a strategic traffic junction
“Policy makers at the national level have contributed to the development of the market by providing funding through the Ministry for Transport and Digital Infrastructure for the acquisition of LNG trucks and by allowing for toll exemptions through 2020.” said Oliver Giese, Senior Vice President for Infrastructure Management at Uniper.
Source: Liqvis