Energy giant Equinor said it will not export blue hydrogen from Norway to Germany due to economics and a lack of demand. Equinor on September 20 said it would discontinue a project that would have supplied German gas-fired power plants with blue hydrogen via the world’s first offshore hydrogen pipeline. Blue hydrogen is a fuel made with natural gas through a process that captures and stores carbon dioxide (CO2) as a byproduct. “The hydrogen pipeline hasn’t proved to be viable. That also implies that hydrogen production plans are also put aside,” Equinor spokesperson Magnus Frantzen Eidsvold told the Reuters news service. “We have decided to discontinue this early-phase project.” Eidsvold did say Equinor will continue other hydrogen projects that are in their early stages, including strategies in the Netherlands and the UK. German energy company RWE in January 2023 signed a memorandum of understanding with Equinor to support the hydrogen supply, which would have provided feedstock for hydrogen-ready gas-fired facilities in Germany. Those power plants would help replace power generation as Germany phases out coal-fired power. RWE has said the pipeline was not its project, but rather a strategy requiring support from both Norway and Germany. Eidsvold said plans to help build hydrogen-ready gas-fired power plants in Germany along with RWE will continue, but the hydrogen will not be imported from Norway. RWE has said hydrogen-ready gas power plants could be online as soon as 2030 if German officials support construction.
‘Tens of Billion Euros’
Equinor CEO Anders Opedal last year had said the cost to build the hydrogen supply chain from Norway could be as much as “tens of billion euros.” Officials had said the pipeline cost by itself would be about 3 billion euros ($3.35 billion). Eidsvold said Equinor needs more long-term commitments from buyers across Europe to support hydrogen export projects. “We are not able to make this kind of investments when we don’t have long-term agreements and the markets in place,” Eidsvold told Reuters. A German economy ministry official on Saturday told Reuters there is now a plan to use Norwegian gas to produce blue hydrogen in the Netherlands, and send captured CO2 back to Norway for storage. —Darrell Proctor is senior editor for POWER (@POWERmagazine).
