Norwegian Fjords transition into H2 hub

The collaborative agreement between Provaris Energy Ltd and Norwegian Hydrogen AS will jointly progress the next phase of development for the FjordH2 project, located at Ørskog in the Ålesund municipality, Norway.

“Provaris’ unique approach to developing integrated hydrogen projects for export using compression delivers a flexible, efficient and early mover advantage for Norway to support the REPowerEU demand for imported volumes of green hydrogen,” said Martin Carolan, managing director and CEO, Provaris.

”The collaboration with Norwegian Hydrogen will be key to the project given their expertise and leadership in hydrogen production and distribution projects underway in Norway and Denmark.”

Hydrogen hub

The development plan will position the FjordH2 project to become one of the largest production facilities for green hydrogen in the entire Nordic region.

With access to renewable power from the Ørskog substation, the hydrogen production facility will have a capacity of 270 MW when it is fully developed, with a production capacity of 40,000 tonnes of green hydrogen annually.

A capacity of 20MW has been granted and an application for a further 250MW capacity has already been submitted and is being processed.

Provaris’ unique approach to integrating compression as an export vector for green hydrogen provides an early mover export advantage to Europe and enables the electrolysis plant to be designed with a high degree of flexibility when it comes to usage of the power grid. This could help achieve a more competitive price for hydrogen being delivered into Europe.

During the production of hydrogen through electrolysis, circular business opportunities are also created utilising large volumes of surplus heat for district heating and clean oxygen for aquaculture.

Regional benefits from the project will also be significant, with more than 50 new jobs in Ørskog and the ripple effect leading to other job opportunities.

The target of the project is to begin exporting green hydrogen is 2027.