Plug Power, an electrolytic cell manufacturer, has received an order to supply a 1 GW plant - the world's largest to date - to hydrogen company H2 Energy Europe as part of an offshore wind project in Denmark, which is expected to produce enough clean fuel to operate about 15,000 heavy duty vehicle engines.
Electricity from the wind farm will be fed ashore to a planned hydrogen hub in the port city of Esbjerg, where PEM Plug Power electrolysers will produce up to 100,000 tons of hydrogen per year to operate fuel cell Hyundai trucks provided through a joint venture between H2 Energy and Korea auto.
The project is completely exempt from subsidies due to clean hydrogen already competing with diesel in Denmark, Plug Power CEO Andy Marsh tells Recharge.
"When you look at hydrogen as a whole, there are certain segments today with no intention of sitting back and wanting to say 'yes, that makes sense'." And I think that in a place like Denmark, hydrogen can be competitive (against diesel).”
We see green hydrogen as the future and have made significant investments in green hydrogen, including the construction of an electrolyser gigafactory," said Andy Marsh, CEO of Plug Power. “Our readiness to work and production capacity were key determinants in the selection of the world's largest order to date, and we are delighted to be a part of this project with H2 Energy.”
The electrolyser will be sourced from the Plug Power Gigafactory in Rochester, NY, with some of the production equipment supplied by external European suppliers. Installation of equipment at the Daya H2 Energy complex is scheduled for 2024, and the first hydrogen should be produced in 2025.
Rolf Huber, CEO of H2 Energy, which recently signed an agreement with Phillips 66 to build more than 250 hydrogen filling stations in Denmark, Germany and Austria, said: “Plug Power’s unique knowledge and market position in the ecological hydrogen ecosystem made our choice to cooperation is very easy. We have the same ambition to reduce CO2 emissions and create a world where hydrogen is the future of energy.”
H2 Energy Europe, headquartered in Switzerland, is a joint venture with trading company Trafigura.
The agreement with H2 Energy is the latest in a series of significant international orders for Plug Power electrolysers, including a 250 MW plant through a joint venture with Fortescue Future Industries in Australia, a 100 MW plant for Fertiglobe in Egypt, and a 10 MW plant for MOL .
Today, Plug Power has produced more than 50,000 fuel cell systems - mainly for forklift trucks - and more than 165 filling stations, and plans to build and operate a "green hydrogen highway" across North America and Europe.
There is now a 1 GW fuel cell/electrolyser factory in New York, and gigafactories are under construction in South Korea as part of a joint venture between SK Group and Fortescue Future Industries.
