Oslip, 30 September 2025. On Tuesday evening, the 31st Innovation Award was presented by the Burgenland Economic Agency at the Csello in Oslip. From among all the entries, the expert jury selected the Forschung Burgenland project ‘Pilot research facility for integrating green hydrogen production into the Neusiedl am See sector coupling plant’ as the winner among the research institutions.
Research for the energy system of the future
Forschung Burgenland has been working for several years on options for integrating weather-dependent, fluctuating energy generation plants into technical, energy-economic and social systems. Thanks to Burgenland’s pioneering role in the expansion of wind and solar PV energy, there is potential to decarbonise other energy sectors – such as heating, transport and gases – by drawing on electricity from renewable sources – in other words, moving away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy.
The project in Neusiedl am See is expanding an existing sector coupling plant, in which wind and solar power are already connected to a heating plant. This plant is now being expanded to include green hydrogen.
Pilot plant setting an example
The pilot plant, operated by Forschung Burgenland at the Burgenland Energie site, enables hydrogen to be produced on-site, stored temporarily in clusters of cylinders, and converted back into electricity as required. In addition, the waste heat generated by hydrogen production is made available to the heat pump system as an additional heat source – a unique example in Austria of the consistent exploitation of synergy effects.
“With this research plant, we are creating the opportunity to make sustainable use of renewable surpluses from wind and solar power and to make them available for longer periods in the form of hydrogen. This is a key building block for a fully decarbonised energy system,” explains project manager Markus Puchegger.
What makes the project innovative?
The research facility is considered unique both in Austria and across Europe. Whilst many hydrogen plants are tested in laboratory settings, the Neusiedl pilot plant is directly linked to real-world energy infrastructure: a wind farm, a hybrid power plant, a heating plant and a heat pump system. This means that hydrogen is not only produced, stored and converted back into electricity, but waste heat is also integrated into the energy system at the same time.
Marcus Keding, Managing Director of Forschung Burgenland, also emphasises that projects such as this are forward-looking and pioneering: “Our plant is the first of its kind in Austria: it was implemented as a fully integrated extension of the existing power-to-heat plant and connected directly to real-world energy infrastructure. In doing so, we are not only creating a platform for current and future research projects, but also using renewable electricity to produce, store and reconvert green hydrogen into electricity – whilst simultaneously utilising the resulting waste heat. That is what makes this project truly unique.”
