Denmark’s Orsted has started the onsite construction work on the H2RES project in Copenhagen, the company said on May 17. Danish Climate, Energy and Utilities Minister Dan Jorgensen led the groundbreaking ceremony, marking the onsite construction start of Orsted’s first renewable hydrogen project.
According to Orsted, H2RES will have a capacity of 2 MW and will be situated on Orsted’s premises on Avedøre Holme in Copenhagen. The project will investigate how to best combine an efficient electrolyser with the fluctuating power supply from offshore wind, using Orsted’s two 3.6 MW offshore wind turbines at Avedore Holme.
“H2RES will be a small, but very important first step in realising Orsted’s large ambitions for renewable hydrogen, which has fast proven itself as a centrepiece in the green transformation of the European economy to net-zero emissions by 2050,” said Anders Nordstrom, vice president and head of Orsted’s hydrogen and PtX activities. “At Orsted, we believe that renewable hydrogen can become an industrial stronghold of several European economies, including Denmark, while also contributing significantly to bringing down emissions from the hard-to-abate sectors in transport and industry,” he added.
The facility will produce up to around 1,000 kg of renewable hydrogen a day, which will be used to fuel zero-emission road transport in the Greater Copenhagen area and on Zealand. The project is expected to produce its first hydrogen in late 2021.
In less than three years, Orsted has, with partners, established nine renewable hydrogen projects in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom so far, spanning from demonstration projects like H2RES to industrial-scale visions like the potentially 1,300 MW ‘Green Fuels for Denmark’ project.
The Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Program (EUDP) under the Danish Energy Agency has previously awarded DKK 34.6 million to the development of the H2RES project to Orsted, Everfuel Europe A/S, NEL Hydrogen A/S, Green Hydrogen Systems A/S, DSV Panalpina A/S, Hydrogen Denmark, and Energinet Elsystemansvar A/S.
