A coalition of firms has announced a commitment to develop 45GW of green hydrogen electrolysers with secured financing by 2026, with commissioning targeted for 2027.

The coalition—called the Green Hydrogen Catapult—includes Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power, renewables developer CWP Global, green energy company Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), Sweden’s H2 Green Steel, Spanish utility Iberdrola, Copenhagen-based Mærsk McKinney Moller Centre for Zero Carbon Shipping, Italian energy infrastructure firm Snam, fertiliser producer Yara and Danish energy company Orsted.

The targets were not broken down by company but, as part of the announcement, FFI laid out details of a project in Rio Negro, Argentina to produce 35,000t/yr of green hydrogen between 2022 and 2024.

“We are not waiting. The time is now to build the green hydrogen industry, and FFI is aiming to supply 15mn t of green hydrogen to the world by 2030,” says FFI CEO Julie Shuttleworth. The company is constructing a 2GW electrolyser facility in Australia.

Mauritania

Meanwhile, CWP Global has signed a memorandum of understanding with Mauritania for a project that will produce 10mn t/yr of green ammonia by 2030, with FID expected in 2025.

“Europe will have to source green hydrogen from other places to meet demand,” said Mauritanian energy minister Abdessalam Mohamed Saleh at Cop26.“We believe Mauritania will be one of the best places to do that.”

“The time is now to build the green hydrogen industry” Shuttleworth, FFI

The coalition members said the announcement represents a significant contribution to deploying green hydrogen at the scale and speed required to reduce costs to below $2/kg.

The commitments will also bring global green hydrogen production in line with IEA production targets for net zero, the statement adds.

Policy actions

The coalition members made an additional call for governments to accelerate green hydrogen adoption by setting five-year targets instead of longer-term goals, abolishing fossil fuel subsidies, and providing near-term incentives to enable heavy industry sectors with long capital cycles to adopt green hydrogen and to invest in infrastructure.

There are three crucial actions needed to deploy hydrogen, according to Francesco La Camera, director general of the International Renewable Energy Agency.

“Set targets, put policies in place to mobilise deployment against these targets, and get funding place,” he said at Cop26. “The overall environment is still insufficient to achieve the speed and scale of green hydrogen that is needed.”

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Author: Tom Young