Equinor and RWE have agreed to jointly develop offshore wind farms enabling production of green hydrogen as part of a wider cooperation to develop value chains for low carbon hydrogen.
Under the MoU the partners aim to replace coal fired power plants with hydrogen-ready gas fired power plants in Germany, and to build production of low carbon and renewable hydrogen in Norway that will be exported via pipeline to Germany.
Industrial scale and reliable supply of hydrogen to Germany and the EU, depends on the construction of a hydrogen pipeline from Norway to Germany, RWE and Equinor stated.
This is under evaluation by Gassco and partners in the context of the German-Norwegian feasibility study.
The pipeline would initially transport low carbon hydrogen, produced by capturing more than 95% of the CO2 from natural gas, using existing and proven technologies.
In parallel, Equinor and RWE will collaborate to develop renewable hydrogen production from future large-scale offshore wind projects in Germany and Norway.
As renewable hydrogen production increases, this would complement and eventually replace low carbon hydrogen in the pipeline, leading to delivery of fully decarbonised baseload fuel and feedstock, supplying industries and supporting intermittent power generation from renewables, said the partners.
“The collaboration has the potential to develop Norway into a key supplier of hydrogen to Germany and Europe.
“This is a unique opportunity to build a hydrogen industry in Norway where hydrogen also can be used as feedstock to domestic industries,” said Anders Opedal (pictured), Equinor CEO and president.
Markus Krebber, CEO of RWE (pictured), added: “In order to make progress in the conversion from fossil fuels to hydrogen, there is an urgent need for a rapid ramp up of the hydrogen economy.
“Blue hydrogen in large quantities can make a start, with subsequent conversion into green hydrogen supply.
“This is exactly what we are driving forward with our partnership – providing the industries with relevant quantities of hydrogen.
“In addition, our planned investments into hydrogen-ready gas-fired power plant will ensure security of supply in a decarbonised power sector.”