The investment will see Fortescue acquire a 12.5% ownership interest in Norwegian Hydrogen, becoming the third largest shareholder.
“Stepping the world beyond fossil fuels”
Fortescue Energy CEO Mark Hutchinson said: “climate change is here now, and business needs to work together to combat it. Decarbonising hard to abate sectors and stepping the world beyond fossil fuels is imperative to that, and to do that, we need to start producing green hydrogen and green ammonia at scale.”
“Fortescue’s investment in Norwegian Hydrogen is an important step in helping to scale up the entire green hydrogen value chain, which will not only help support our own proposed projects in Norway, but the global green hydrogen and green ammonia industry.”
Developing a portfolio of green hydrogen projects
Fortescue is developing a global portfolio of green hydrogen and green ammonia projects, with two potential projects already in the pipeline across Norway. The Holmaneset project in Bremanger is a 300-megawatt (MW) green hydrogen and green ammonia facility, while there are plans for another 300 MW facility in the Hemnes municipality.
Norwegian Hydrogen is already building its first hydrogen plants at Hellesylt, at the entrance to the Geirangerfjord in Sunnmøre, and in Hjørring in Denmark.
Earlier this year, Norwegian Hydrogen and Provaris Energy Ltd (ASX:PV1, OTC:GBBLF) announced plans to establish the 270 MW FjordH2 project, one of the Nordic region's largest factories for the production of green hydrogen.
The plant to be built in Ålesund, Norway is expected to have an annual production capacity of 40,000 tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030.
The project is well positioned to respond to the European Union’s REPowerEU Plan, which is targeting diversified sources of clean energy in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent energy supply disruptions.
Hydrogen refuelling stations
In March this year, Norwegian Hydrogen also established the subsidiary Vireon, which has received Enova support for the construction of hydrogen refuelling stations for heavy duty vehicles, at Dombås, Stavanger and Vestby in Norway.
These are among the first of several such stations planned by Vireon in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
