Developer Madoqua Renewables has announced a 500MW green hydrogen project based in Sines, Portugal.

The Portuguese firm will partner with Dutch consultancy Power2X and Danish fund manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) to advance the €1bn ($1.1bn) Madoquapower2X project.

Madoquapower2X will produce 50,000t/yr of green hydrogen and 500,000t/yr of green ammonia and is the largest of its type in Portugal.

The hydrogen will be used initially to decarbonise local industry, with the ammonia exported from the terminal at the port of Sines.

“Portugal is structurally well positioned to play a leading role in the emerging energy transition space in Europe,” says Rogaciano Rebelo, CEO of Madoqua.

1mn t/yr – Targeted green ammonia capacity of project

“The project, along with the development of dedicated renewable power generation assets, will contribute significantly towards Portugal’s national hydrogen strategy,” he adds. That strategy plans for 2GW of electrolyser capacity by 2030.

“This important investment represents the actual implementation of Portugal’s national strategy for hydrogen, in line with the European industrial strategy, as well as the more recent measures proposed by the European Commission on Repower EU,” says Portuguese environment secretary Joao Galamba.

Electricity will be sourced from dedicated renewable energy assets being developed in parallel to the electrolyser and export terminal.

The project is expected to be fully permitted and ready for FID by the end of 2023, with construction to start in 2024 and first production by the middle of the decade.

The consortium members hope to expand the project to produce 1mn t/yr of green ammonia before 2030.

“Sines provides an excellent location for this project [because of its] proximity to local heavy industry, an existing export terminal and the political will demonstrated by Portugal to be a key green hydrogen leader in Europe,” says Philip Christiani, a partner at CIP.

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Author: Tom Young