Hydrogen24: Norwegian Hydrogen and Provaris are expanding their collaboration

Article has been translated from Hydrogen24 – read the original article here

BY ØYVIND PAULSEN

Already last year, Provaris started investigating exporting hydrogen to Europe in line with #REPowerEU. Now, Finland is also on the map.

In January 2023, we were able to share the major agreement between Norwegian Hydrogen and Provaris Energy, which was to collaborate on exporting hydrogen to Europe.

The point was naturally to use Provaris’ transport and storage solutions to transport hydrogen from Norwegian Hydrogen's upcoming production facility - and at this point the focus was on facilities in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

Since then developments have included:

• 9 May: Successful feasibility study on the export of green hydrogen
• 14 June: Norwegian Hydrogen will establish a production facility for export in Ålesund and already on 28 June there was more information about the FjordH2 project
• At the same time, Provari's cargo ship ( H2 Neo ) and floating bunkering solution (H2 Leo) have moved closer, as well as the production of tanks in Norway .

There is already talk of several facilities, and as you can see from the illustration at the top, Finland is now also drawn into the map.

The new cooperation agreement

The parties have therefore sent out a press release about the new agreement today, and these are the highlights we note:

• The parties wish to cooperate on identifying and developing more facilities in the Nordic region for large-scale production and export of hydrogen to the European market via sea.

The aim here is to help decarbonise energy-intensive European industry, while of course positioning themselves to benefit from the EU's funding schemes.

The two parties are looking for production sites along the sea that have good access to power, so that it will be easy to get started with the construction of the electrolysis production. As before, Provari's H2Neo ship will of course be responsible for transport, while the H2Leo barge will serve for storage, and the parties also want to utilize the excess heat and excess hydrogen from production.

- At the same time as we are developing an extensive network of production sites and distribution infrastructure across the Nordic region, we have also identified several sites with significant export potential, says Norwegian Hydrogen CEO Jens Berge.

Will transport hydrogen - not derivatives

Although such locations can also be used to produce derivatives such as e-methanol or green ammonia, we are convinced that the best is direct delivery of what the customer wants, says Berge.

When the end customer wants compressed hydrogen, it is best to avoid a derivative only for transport purposes, and with Provaris' technology we can bring the hydrogen in gaseous form all the way from production in the Nordics to customers in continental Europe, says Berge in the press release.

This extended collaboration with Norwegian Hydrogen is a result of our successful collaboration in 2023 and the platform they have developed in the Nordics as a producer of hydrogen, says Martin Carolan - CEO of Provaris Energy. We believe this partnership can accelerate the delivery of green hydrogen - both to German utility companies and not least to the port of Rotterdam where we are developing an import terminal for compressed hydrogen together with Global Energy Storage (GES - see link below) which can also provide market access to an even greater part of Europe, he says in the press release.

What happens now?

The two partners do not specify exactly where they will establish production sites, but say that they will use 2024 to carry out feasibility studies at relevant locations in the Nordic region. We still assume that Finland is relevant, both because Finland is now drawn on the map (see above) and because we already know that Norwegian Hydrogen is investigating hydrogen production there:

The parties must cover their own expenses for the feasibility studies, and must also share any expenses incurred by third parties. Each joint development project will be subject to a project-specific final development agreement to be agreed and executed.

Provaris will also continue prototype testing of the hydrogen cargo ship H2Neo, with the aim of final construction approval in Norway by mid-2024.

If you missed the ASX announcement regarding Norwegian Hydrogen and Provaris extending their collaboration for the development of new hydrogen export sites in the Nordics, you can read it below.