Three Austria and Wien Energie are using electricity from green hydrogen to operate a mobile transmission system for the first time at Europe’s largest free open air event
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Vienna (OTS) – Over 2.5 million music enthusiasts visit the Vienna Danube Island Festival every year. If so many people come to one place, unrestricted mobile phone reception is particularly important. That’s why four additional mobile transmitters are in use on the Danube Island for the duration of the Danube Island Festival, which are operated by Drei Österreich. These are usually supplied with electricity by diesel generators, as there is no comprehensive power supply available on the Danube Island. In order to test how such festivals can be made more environmentally friendly in the future, Wien Energie and Drei Österreich operated one of these transmitters with green hydrogen in a pilot project in Vienna for the first time this year.
“Here, we use green hydrogen to ensure that festival visitors enjoy the best reception – and in a climate-neutral way. Green hydrogen is a key element in making industry, energy and mobility climate-neutral in the future. The energy source can be used in a variety of ways, even in a special application such as a festival. We are saving around 450 liters of diesel with the pilot project.”explained Michael Strebl, Chairman of the Wien Energie Management Board. The green hydrogen was produced by Wien Energie and delivered in bundles of bottles.
“Our mobile transmission system for the Vienna Danube Island Festival, powered by green hydrogen from Wien Energie, proves that sustainability and digitalization are not a contradiction. Technology helps people and companies live more sustainably and consciously. Our aim as a telecommunications provider is that everyone in this country – whether young or old, in private or professional life – has access to digitalization. And that digitalization is affordable for everyone in Austria,” so Three CEO Rudolf Schrefl.
Emission-free generator from Germany in use
In the pilot project, Wien Energie and Drei are using a mobile, emission-free generator – the so-called “H2Genset” – from the company “Test-Fuchs”. It is a mobile hydrogen fuel cell in which the hydrogen is converted into electricity in a chemical process. A small battery also ensures that fluctuating power requirements are compensated for. In addition to electricity, only water vapor is generated, so operation is completely emission-free and climate-neutral. The process is also significantly more efficient than the combustion process of a conventional diesel generator. In Germany, the generator has already been used in a few festivals; in Austria, the Danube Island Festival was the premiere.
Wide range of possible uses
The impetus for the pilot project in Vienna comes from the Vienna innovation laboratory “Climate Lab”, in which Wien Energie is a founding member. As part of considerations about the use of green hydrogen on construction sites, the use of mobile electricity provision through emission-free generators across the construction industry was also analyzed. The pilot project at the Donauinselfest 2024 emerged from these considerations in the Climate Lab.
Questions & Contact:
Alexander Hoor
Company spokesperson Wien Energie
Telephone: 0664 884 801 81
E-mail: alexander.hoor@wienenergie.at
Tom Tesch
Press spokesman Hutchison Drei Austria GmbH
Telephone: +43 (0) 50 660 33700
Email: tom.tesch@drei.com