Everfuel and Greenstat receive a grant for Hydrogen Hub Agder

Everfuel and Greenstat announce the award of a grant of NOK 148 million from Enova to support the development of the Hydrogen Hub Agder. The hub includes the construction of a 20 MW electrolyser at the Elkem Fiskaa industrial compound in Kristiansand, Norway.

The primary focus for the hub is to serve the shipping industry with renewable fuel where Kristiansand is a major port for both Norwegian coastal traffic and marine traffic to the rest of the European continent. Kristiansand is also a key landing point for the European transportation corridor through Jylland in Denmark onwards to Norway. The planning and execution of the project will commence immediately with planned start-up of operations in the fourth quarter of 2024. 

The project hub is the first major joint venture between Everfuel and Greenstat following cooperation agreement signed in July 2021. Hydrogen Hub Agder will be developed in collaboration between the two parties and the industrial companies Elkem and Glencore Nikkelverk.

Everfuel and Greenstat: terms of the agreement

The partners are targeting the fast-growing shipping segment and offtake opportunities from partners in the construction industry, trucking mobility, refuse services, taxi fleets as well as providing green energy supplies to industrial clients. Everfuel and Greenstat has signed Letters of Intent with several clients representing a total offtake of more than 8 000 metric tons (MT) of compressed hydrogen per year. The full hub potential is planned to be realised after a second development phase which will increase the electrolyser capacity to 60 MW.

“We look forward to developing competitive hydrogen solutions for multiple purposes and to make shipping, mobility and industry in Norway a bit greener. The Hub will also support the development of an efficient supply chain to serve our fuelling network along the south coast of Norway with green hydrogen,” says Helge Skaarberg Holen, Country Manager for Everfuel in Norway.

The location near the harbour is ideal for maritime hydrogen supplies using both container swapping and cascade fuelling. A group of ambitious partners including Holland-Norway Lines,  FFS Marine, Arriva Shipping and several undisclosed companies have signed letters of intent (LOIs), expressing their interest in offtaking hydrogen from the facility. As Kristiansand is also a logistics hub for multiple companies, the location is attractive for partners in the mobility segments. ASKO, a leading logistics company, and UMOE, a leading hydrogen gas container producer located in Kristiansand, are among mobility partners signing LOIs for hydrogen offtake.

Furthermore, an LOI has been signed with Glencore Nikkelverk for the offtake of the excess oxygen from the production facility. Combined with a potential use of excess heat from the facility in collaboration with Elkem Carbon, Everfuel and Greenstat will create a highly energy-efficient PtX-facility aiming for a power efficiency in excess of 90%. This would make it one of the most efficient water electrolysis facilities in Europe.  

Depending permitting, the commissioning of the first phase is expected in late 2024.