Norwegian Hydrogen has announced plans for the largest green hydrogen production facility in Norway. 

The prospective 270MW factory at Ørskog would produce 40,00 tonnes per year (tpa) of green hydrogen. The plant was allocated 20MW of electrolytic capacity,  while the company has applied for further capacity of 250MW.

Speaking about the project, Norwegian Hydrogen CEO Jens Berge said: “This is an important milestone for the development of large-scale production of green hydrogen in Norway and we look forward to being part of developing a new forward-looking industry”.

Berge continued: “From Ørskog, a large volume of green hydrogen will be exported to Europe, and part of the production capacity will cover the demand from customers in Norway.”

Australian company Provaris Energy, which focuses on hydrogen transport and storage, will facilitate the exports.

Provaris CEO Martin Carolan stated: “This is a large-scale project that will effectively meet both local demand for hydrogen and allow for flexible delivery of demanded green energy to Europe.”

Provaris focuses on hydrogen compression, which it argues has “mininmal technical barriers, small environmental footprint” and avoids the expensive process of liquidising hydrogen for transport. The two companies signed an initial memorandum of understanding in January 2023 to identify sites for the project and technical analysis of production and export.

Carolan added: “The efficiency of our supply chain, based on compression, allows a flexible production, storage and transport solution that allows this to become a competitive project in the green shift.”

Norwegian Hydrogen claims that the plant could reduce emissions by up to 500,000tpa. In January, Norwegian company Equinor announced it was also taking steps towards hydrogen production in Europe. The company partnered with RWE to build gas-fired, low-carbon hydrogen power plants instead of previously used coal-fired plants.