Danske Commodities to optimize world’s largest commercial PtX facility

Solar Park Kassø (SPK), a joint venture company owned by European Energy and Mitsui & Co., has signed an optimization agreement with energy trader Danske Commodities for the Kassø Power-to-X facility, also known as the world’s largest commercial Power-to-X (PtX) facility that will supply shipping industry players like Maersk with e-methanol.

Developed by European Energy and owned by SPK, the Kassø Power-to-X facility will have the capacity to produce 32,000 tonnes of e-methanol a year. The plant is expected to become operational in the second half of 2024.

Under the agreement, Danske Commodities will balance electricity and optimize the Power-to-X facility by managing the consumption of power needed to produce e-methanol.

The PtX facility is located in Southern Denmark next to the 304 MW Kassø solar farm, the biggest solar farm in the Nordics with an output equivalent to the electricity consumption of more than 80,000 European households. The Kassø solar farm is also owned by SPK, and Danske Commodities has been balance responsible party (BRP) for the solar farm since 2022. This responsibility will now include the Power-to-X facility as Danske Commodities will manage both the production from the solar farm and the consumption of the Power-to-X facility, the company explained.

This responsibility means that when the solar farm produces more power than the PtX facility needs, the surplus power will be made available to other consumers and sold in the market. In turn, when the facility needs more power than the solar farm can produce, the needed power will be purchased in the spot market in the most cost-efficient hours.

“Partnering with Danske Commodities allows us to leverage their expertise in energy trading to ensure that the Kassø facility operates at maximum efficiency when it comes online later this year. This allows us to take a significant step forward in our mission to deliver sustainable energy solutions on a large scale,” said Knud Erik Andersen, CEO of European Energy.

European Energy’s Kassø PtX Expansion ApS is also one of the winners of Denmark’s first PtX tender which made available DKK 1.25 billion (approximately €167.7 million) in state support for the production of Power-to-X in the form of green hydrogen. In 2022, European Energy received €53 million from the Danish Green Investment Fund (DGIF) for its upcoming PtX facility in Kassø.