Nordic Green News – 19 August, 2020

Hydrogen factory project in Copenhagen seeks funding from state

Plans to build a giant hydrogen factory in Copenhagen are beginning to take shape. The concept is that towards the end of the decade, the factory will produce large quantities of green hydrogen from electricity from the upcoming offshore wind farm on Bornholm. The hydrogen will be used to produce sustainable fuels for ships, aircraft, buses and trucks by mixing hydrogen and CO2 collected from the burning of biomass or waste.

 

The venture hopes to use funds to build a pilot plant in the first phase with a capacity of 10MW. The plant will be ready in 2023. Following successful trials, the next phase of the project contemplates a 250MW factory with associated CO2 collection and fuel production in 2027. 3 years later the plant is to be fully expanded to a capacity of 1.3GW. In comparison, the total capacity in Europe for the production of green hydrogen today is just 250 MW. By 2030, the European Commission has an ambitious goal of expanding to a capacity of at least 40 gigawatts.

 

Prokon and Neoen developing Finnish wind energy projects

German-owned Prokon, in partnership with French Neoen completed the Hedet project in Närpes in June. All electricity produced in the park is delivered to Google and Hedet is the first major project in Finland to be realized without state support. The collaboration between Neoen and Prokon has provided the consortium with confidence for the future development of two other projects.

 

Ovako first in the world to heat steel with hydrogen

Ovako AB, owned by Nippon Steel Corporation, is a European manufacturer of engineering steel. In conjunction with Linde Gas AB, Ovako has successfully carried out a full-scale test to replace LPG with hydrogen for heating steel before rolling. This is a historic event for the steel industry as it proves that it is possible to eliminate CO2 emissions from rolling.

 

Norwegian Seafood Research funds hydrogen and ammonia vessel research

FHF, the Norwegian Seafood Research Fund is to finance concept development for hydrogen and ammonia powered boats. According to Sepideh Jafarzadeh, a researcher at Sintef Ocean, a lot of technology development is needed before a boat that runs on hydrogen or ammonia can actually be built. FHF has requested a "proof-of-concept" analysis for a 13 metre coastal fishing vessel with hybrid propulsion based on batteries and fuel cells. The fuel can be hydrogen or ammonia, which require different designs. 

 

Further orders for renewable transport

Two separate projects ofr renewable-fuelled transport went live. This week Gardermoen airport in Oslo became the first airport in the Nordics to use electric shuttle buses, taking delivery of 8. The goal is for all such buses at Gardermoen to be electric by 2026.

 

Stay Fresh Sweden AB, a transporter on Sweden’s west coast has also taken delivery of 7 new Volvo LNG trucks that will run on 100% biogas. 

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