Everfuel, Greenstat receive Enova funding for Hydrogen Hub Agder

Danish hydrogen fuel company Everfuel A/S and Norwegian energy company Greenstat ASA have been granted NOK 148 million ($14.9 million) from Enova to support the development of the Hydrogen Hub Agder.

The hub includes the construction of a 20 MW electrolyser at the Elkem Fiskaa industrial compound in Kristiansand, Norway.

The primary focus of the hub is to serve the shipping industry with renewable fuel where Kristiansand is a major port for both Norwegian coastal traffic and marine traffic to the rest of the European continent. Kristiansand is also a key landing point for the European transportation corridor through Jylland in Denmark onwards to Norway.

The planning and execution of the project will commence immediately with planned start-up of operations in the fourth quarter of 2024.

The project hub is the first major joint venture between Everfuel and Greenstat following the cooperation agreement signed in July 2021. Hydrogen Hub Agder will be developed in collaboration between the two parties and the industrial companies Elkem and Glencore Nikkelverk.

“We are very pleased with the grant from Enova and consider it as a vote of confidence to the role Everfuel and Greenstat are playing to facilitate the green shift in Norway. We are looking forward to work with our clients and together with Greenstat, Elkem and Glencore Nikkelverk to deliver on the plan we have presented to Enova,” Jacob Krogsgaard, the CEO of Everfuel, commented.

“In Greenstat we would also like to express our gratitude to the support and trust from Enova to realise the Hydrogen Hub Agder project… Kristiansand municipality and Agder County have both mobilised strong and valuable support for the project. Together we have a clear ambition to realise the ‘Electric Region Agder’ vision and to make the maritime sector fossil-free,” Torstein Thorsen Ekern, managing director of Greenstat Energy, said.

Specifically, the partners are targeting the fast-growing shipping segment and offtake opportunities from partners in the construction industry, trucking mobility, refuse services, taxi fleets as well as providing green energy supplies to industrial clients.

Everfuel and Greenstat have signed letters of intent with several clients representing a total offtake of more than 8 000 metric tons (MT) of compressed hydrogen per year. The full hub potential is planned to be realised after a second development phase which will increase the electrolyser capacity to 60 MW.

“In this project, we have engaged with a number of visionary and ambitious partners who are all exploring different ways of decarbonising their operations. We look forward to developing competitive hydrogen solutions for multiple purposes and to make shipping, mobility and industry in Norway a bit greener. The Hub will also support the development of an efficient supply chain to serve our fuelling network along the south coast of Norway with green hydrogen,” Helge Skaarberg Holen, Country Manager for Everfuel in Norway, noted.

The project has entered into a partnership agreement with Elkem for the lease of seafront land on the Fiskaa industrial compound near the Kristiansand harbour. The construction is planned in two phases, where the first phase is a hydrogen production facility with a 20 MW electrolyser producing around 8 MT of green hydrogen per day. The second phase is expected to be commissioned in 2027, expanding the PtX facility to a 60 MW electrolyser.

The location near the harbour is said to be ideal for maritime hydrogen supplies using both container swapping and cascade fuelling. A group of ambitious partners including Holland-Norway Lines, FFS Marine, Arriva Shipping and several undisclosed companies have signed letters of intent expressing their interest in offtaking hydrogen from the facility.

As Kristiansand is also a logistics hub for multiple companies, the location is attractive for partners in the mobility segments. ASKO, a logistics company, and UMOE, a hydrogen gas container producer located in Kristiansand, are among mobility partners signing LOIs for hydrogen offtake.

Furthermore, an LOI has been signed with Glencore Nikkelverk for the offtake of the excess oxygen from the production facility. Combined with the potential use of excess heat from the facility in collaboration with Elkem Carbon, Everfuel and Greenstat will create a highly energy-efficient PtX-facility aiming for a power efficiency in excess of 90%. This would make it one of the most efficient water electrolysis facilities in Europe. Depending permitting, the commissioning of the first phase is expected in late 2024.