Gen2 Energy looking into Provaris’ hydrogen shipping solution for its Åfjord project

June 30, 2023, by Ajsa Habibic

Provaris Energy, an Australian developer of green hydrogen projects, and its Norwegian counterpart Gen2 Energy have teamed up to develop a large-scale European hydrogen supply chain.

Åfjord project in Trøndelag region, Norway; Archive; Courtesy of Gen2 Energy

With this aim in mind, the parties signed a collaboration agreement to conduct a comprehensive pre-feasibility study to determine the technical and economic viability of producing and supplying compressed green hydrogen from the hydrogen project in Åfjord to European ports using Provaris’ marine storage and shipping solution.

The parties believe that Åfjord’s access to low-cost renewable energy and industrial infrastructure makes it an ideal site for large-scale production of green hydrogen and seaborn hydrogen supply to key European ports.

Gen2 Energy is working to build a production facility for green hydrogen in the industrial site Monstad Havneområde in Åfjord and gain access to quay facilities to transport green hydrogen to relevant markets in Europe and Norway.

As the next step, the pre-feasibility study to be undertaken with Provaris Energy will include the hydrogen production and compression, the export and import terminals for loading and unloading the green hydrogen carriers, green hydrogen carrier fleet optimization, including storage, and prospective offtake parties and economic models and schedules for the hydrogen project in Åfjord.

Provaris’ portfolio of hydrogen shipping and storage solutions includes green hydrogen carriers H2Neo, which obtained Approval in Principle (AIP) from ABS, and a floating storage H2Leo with a design capacity range of 300 – 600 tonnes of hydrogen.

The H2Neo, which is intended to be utilized in the Åfjord project, was granted Design Approval based on an extensive FEED package in December 2022, with final construction approval targeted for early 2024.

Martin Carolan, CEO of Provaris Energy, said: “… This collaboration will benefit from the synergies of Provaris and Gen2 Eenrgy’s approach to using compression as an energy-efficient carrier for green hydrogen. It can also demonstrate Norway’s role in delivering bulk volumes to ports in Europe that are requesting a simple and flexible solution to import pipeline-ready, gaseous green hydrogen to meet the REPowerEU ambitions for 10 million tonnes by 2030.”

Jonas Meyer, CEO of Gen2 Energy added: “ … Undertaking a pre-feasibility study with Provaris on seaborn transport of compressed hydrogen on their GH2 Carriers will give us a good opportunity to learn more about bulk transport of hydrogen. We want to be in front when it comes to an effective and safe supply of large volumes of green hydrogen from Norway to Europe.”