“I believe that this project is in many ways what has been missing to unlock the potential that exists in the next phase of the energy transition that we are about to enter,” said Norwegian Minister of Climate and Environment Andreas Bjelland Eriksen at the project’s launch in Trondheim.
“Hydrogen is going from something that people debate whether it’s good or bad, to something the business community actively uses and depends on – both for climate commitments and for the development of jobs and industrial growth.”
Hydrogen is expected to play a key role in decarbonising sectors where direct electrification is challenging. However, several barriers remain, including a mismatch between production and demand, regulatory uncertainty and high costs.
NORHyWAY aims to overcome these challenges by developing four complete local value chains spanning the maritime sector, land-based transport and the national power system, together with 16 industrial partners. In doing so, the project aims to develop production capacity of 37,081 tonnes per year by 2030. This corresponds to an annual emissions reduction of up to 345,000 tonnes of CO2, which is comparable to the emissions from approximately 8,000-10,000 flights between London and Oslo.
The project is Norway’s first large-scale hydrogen valley, part of a European initiative to establish local value chains based on green hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels.
As the project’s R&D partner, SINTEF will help ensure that research and innovation activities are relevant, effective and lead to industrial uptake.
“We have to bridge the infamous “valley of death” between technological development and real-world implementation,” said Kyrre Sundseth, senior business developer at SINTEF and technical coordinator for NORHyWAY. “NORHyWAY will seek to develop effective and scalable solutions across the whole hydrogen value chain through collaboration between research, industry and authorities.”
SINTEF has had extensive collaboration with Europe’s hydrogen ecosystem for many years, as evidenced by a broad EU project portfolio, including H2Glass, H2Accelerate Trucks and REFHYNE.
NORHyWAY represents a total investment of approximately EUR 963.3 million, including EUR 21 million in funding from Horizon Europe. With this project, SINTEF moves from being a participant in European hydrogen initiatives to helping deliver large-scale industrial implementation within Europe’s hydrogen valley programme. The EU has a goal of 50 hydrogen valleys in operation or under development by 2030.
NORHyWAY also builds directly on the work of FME HYDROGENi, a Centre for Environment-friendly Energy Research on hydrogen and ammonia, led by SINTEF, where industry and research partners collaborate closely to ensure its work is relevant and taken up by the market.
“The solutions in NORHyWAY will have high international transfer value. We see this in practice by connecting Norwegian efforts with European initiatives to accelerate the development towards a zero-emission society,” said Nils Røkke, EVP of sustainability at SINTEF and director of FME HYDROGENi.
NORHyWAY is a five-year project, coordinated by Fremtidens Industri AS, with a consortium of 17 partners. The project will hold its official kick-off on 11 March.
This project is supported by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership and its members. Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union nor the Clean Hydrogen Partnership. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
