Danish offshore wind energy developer Ørsted has withdrawn from several wind-powered green hydrogen schemes after a review of the company’s Power-to-X projects, according to several online reports.
Power-to-X (P2X) is Ørsted’s umbrella term for turning wind energy into something else – in this case, green hydrogen.
Ørsted said it was withdrawing from the Danish government’s “Green Fuels for Denmark” project as well as a smaller 2MW hydrogen production project called H2RES that planned to demonstrate how offshore wind can be used for green hydrogen production at a site near Copenhagen.
“The [H2RES] consortium has jointly decided not to continue the project since a sub-scale demonstration plant like this no longer has a relevance in the current market,” said Robert Duncalf, who heads Ørsted’s business development and P2X activities in Europe.
Duncalf was quoted in several of these online reports to say: “The learnings from H2RES will play a key role for the partners in the consortium in the development of future green hydrogen solutions, and all parties in the consortium see fundamental potential in green hydrogen and will individually continue to explore opportunities in the area as the market matures.”
H2RES was due to use 7.2MW of offshore wind capacity to power a 2MW electrolyzer to produce green hydrogen earmarked for road transport in the greater Copenhagen area.
Alongside Ørsted, the consortium working on H2RES project included green fuel firms Everfuel Europe, Nel Hydrogen, Green Hydrogen Systems, DSV Panalpina, Hydrogen Denmark and Energinet Elsystemansvar. But this consortium will reportedly be dissolved following Ørsted’s decision.
The move to step out of Green Fuels for Denmark follows the Danish developer’s decision to de-prioritize its efforts within efuels in Northern Europe and “as such the project is no longer in line with our strategy.”
Duncalf added: “We still think the vision behind Green Fuels for Denmark is good. However it is no longer the right fit for Ørsted since we are focusing on our core business which is wind energy with green hydrogen as a relevant and complementary technology.”
Ørsted is also reportedly withdrawing from the Oyster green hydrogen project and the first phase of a joint P2X project targeting 150MW electrolysis capacity with Danish firm Skovgaard Energy.
