In Denmark, GreenLab, a green industrial park, a national research facility, and a technology enabler located in Skive has announced that it has been awarded a EUR 10.7 million grant from the Danish Energy Agency’s funds for energy storage. The purpose of the grant is to cement Denmark’s position on the global green energy market. Together with a series of partners, GreenLab will create the world’s first large-scale facility for the production of green hydrogen and renewable methanol.
Amongst other things, the project entails the establishment of a 10 MW methanol plant and a 12 MW electrolysis plant. Electrical power will come from a local 80MW hybrid wind and solar PV plant.
According to GreenLab, Power-to-X (P2X) technologies whereby surplus intermittent renewable electricity such as from wind or solar PV can be transformed into other energy carriers or fuels and stored hold an enormous export potential for Denmark.
Christopher Sorensen, CEO of GreenLab, has a clear ambition; that GreenLab will be a name as familiar to the world as Vestas or Maersk – sooner rather than later.
Denmark has an ambitious goal of reducing its CO2-emissions by 70 percent before 2030 – and reach complete climate neutrality by 2050. If we are to achieve those goals, there is simply no getting around P2X. GreenLab will also be a green flagship in a European context – we’re a nexus that demonstrates and actually implements the EU climate agreement, said Christopher Sorensen, who has previously been in charge of the CO2-neutral city of Masdar in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
GreenLab focuses on two areas of utilization for P2X. Locally, the converted power will be used as a source of energy for GreenLab’s green industrial business park. Here, a series of companies produce carbon dioxide (CO2) neutral products – something that in itself will save the local area 80 000 tonnes of CO2 annually.
A catalyst for new energy market
At a global level, GreenLab’s electro-fuels will help create one of the largest and most pressing transitions facing the world: The green transition of the transport sector. In fact, the electro-fuels produced in GreenLab will be considered 100 percent sustainable according to the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive (REDII).
As a part of the project, we are building the world’s first green, full-scale, combined hydrogen, and methanol plant to support green transport. It is ground-breaking that we have created a project that brings together all the necessary players needed to succeed with P2X – from the wind producers to the hydrogen producers to the sales link. There are 11 partners involved – all with different areas of expertise, but all with a shared ambition, said Steen Harding Hintze, Director of Development in GreenLab.
The P2X production is expected to start in GreenLab in 2022 and will mark the beginning of a platform that will drive a completely new energy market – both in Denmark and globally.
Norlys is an energy- and telecommunications supply company and one of the 11 partners involved in the project. Lars Bo Jensen, Director at Norlys, has high expectations for P2X as a new export market for Denmark.
There is no doubt in my mind that this head start will give Denmark a great advantage on the global energy market for P2X, Lars Bo Jensen said.
A possible solution for Maersk
One of the customers on the future energy market is the global container shipping major A.P. Moller – Maersk. At the forefront of shipping’s climate ambitions Maersk has the goal to have a CO2-neutral fleet by 2050. For this goal to be met, it needs to identify and mature the right technologies by 2030 at the latest – in collaboration with the wider ecosystem of the shipping industry.
The challenge of becoming CO2-neutral is both a necessity at a business level and at a societal level – and it is an invitation to begin new, innovative collaborations around sustainable solutions. We have 10 years to identify and 20 years to mature and scale the right, commercially viable solutions that will drive our +700 ships into a sustainable future. P2X has the potential to become one of these solutions, and GreenLab is an exciting partnership that we look forward to collaborating with over the years to come, said Ole Graa Jakobsen, Vice President, Head of Fleet Technology at Maersk Line.
Along with GreenLab A/S, the PtX consortium partners includes Eurowind Energy A/S, GreenHydrogen A/S, Norlys Holding A/S, REintegrate ApS, Energinet Electricity System Operator A/S, Danish Gas Technology Center, Everfuel Europe A/S, E.ON Danmark A/S, DTU Energy, EA Energy Analyses
