Aker Clean Hydrogen writes in a stock exchange announcement that both they and Statkraft are withdrawing from the Hegra project at Herøya in Porsgrunn, which they have together with Yara.
– For commercial and strategic reasons, there is no basis for continuing the project with the current ownership structure, the company writes in the report.
It was DN who first mentioned the case. Aker does not want to comment on the matter to the newspaper.
Yara writes in one press release that they will continue the project alone.
Requires massive state aid
Just before Christmas, the project was promised until 283 million from Enova. The money will go to build an electrolysis plant of 24 MW to produce hydrogen from water and electricity. The hydrogen must be added to nitrogen and become ammonia, which must replace fossil gas in fertilizer production in Porsgrunn.
In the preliminary project, Yara will produce 20,000 tonnes of ammonia a year. Yara’s long-term goal is to produce 400,000 tonnes of ammonia a year on Herøya. It will require large sums of public support, in addition to a great deal of electric power.
Magnus Ankarstrand, who leads Yara’s ammonia investment, denies to DN that there is anything wrong with profitability.
– Aker must comment for itself. But we have completed the first phase of the project, and there is nothing there that gave anything disturbing in relation to profitability, or anything significantly new in relation to the case we worked on all the time, he says to DN.
Electricity price not part of the owner discussion
Since Yara and the partners launched the initiative in august last year, the price of electricity in southern norway has risen dramatically.
Recently it became known that Norwegian e-Fuel moves its hydrogen project from Herøya to Mosjøen. They make no secret of the fact that the price of electricity has been an important reason.
But Ankarstrand in Yara denies that electricity prices have been part of the discussion around ownership.
– Electricity prices are of course a significant factor for power-intensive industry and such a project. This is a project whose lifespan is mainly after 2030, and we are very concerned that Norway will drive new, renewable power production to drive the green shift – something we feel that there is great political agreement on, he says to DN.
Will lack power?
The plan is to demolish the current hydrogen plant with steam reforming of gas in 2026, and replace this with water electrolysis.
The project will require about 450 MW of power a year, in addition to what they use today. This means that the plant will need a total of up to 4.4 terawatt hours of power a year.
Sverre Gotaas, general manager of Herøya Industrial Park, has previously questioned whether the area will have enough power:
– The industrial park was expected to need 250 MW, about 2 TWh a year, even before Yara’s plans. It is completely on the edge of what we have the capacity for, he said Gotaas to TU a year ago.
