Siemens Energy has announced it will deliver 200MW of its PEM electrolysers to Air Liquide’s Normand’Hy project in northern France, a facility that will deliver both green and “low-carbon” hydrogen to TotalEnergies’ nearby oil refinery.
The French oil giant yesterday announced that it would supply 100MW of renewable and “low-carbon” power to the Normand’Hy electrolysers, and consequently offtake 10,000 tonnes of green H2 and 5,000 of “low-carbon” hydrogen a year from the second half of 2026.
The project will be one of the first to be supplied from Siemens Energy’s new electrolyser factory in Berlin, which will begin serial production of electrolyser stacks in November, and be expanded to at least 3GW of annual capacity by 2025.
This plant is 25.1%-owned by the French industrial gases company, as part of a joint venture with the German energy giant that was announced in June 2022.
Siemens says that Normand’Hy, in the commune of Port-Jérôme, will produce 28,000 tonnes of “sustainable hydrogen” annually for industry and the mobility sector.
Offtakers for the remainder of the hydrogen — which could be green if supplied by renewable energy — has not been revealed. However, in March 2022, Air Liquide said Normand’Hy would “also contribute to the development of heavy-duty hydrogen mobility” in Normandy.
Also in March 2022, the French government set aside €190m of financial support for the Normand’Hy project, which will be released if the European Commission deems it to be an Important Project of Common Interest and therefore eligible for state aid. But this designation does not seem to have been assigned yet.
“The sustainable decarbonisation of industry is unthinkable without green hydrogen,” said Anne-Laure de Chammard, a management board member at Siemens Energy.
“That's why projects like this are so important. However, this can only be a starting point for a sustainable transformation of the industrial landscape. Further major projects must follow quickly.
“In order for the development of a European hydrogen economy to succeed, we need reliable political support and simplified procedures for promoting and approving such projects.”
