Ørsted and Iberdrola join global green hydrogen scheme

Major developers Iberdrola and Ørsted, along with Australia-based CWP Renewables and Chinese turbine manufacturer Envision, are among seven companies launching the new Green Hydrogen Catapult initiative.

The initiative to reduce the costs of green hydrogen production to below $2,000/tonne – roughly half the current costs – and increase production capacity to 25GW by 2026. It is unclear whether this capacity target relates only to members of the group, or is a global ambition.

The group is completed by Saudi energy firm ACWA Power, Italian energy infrastructure company Snam and Norwegian chemical business Yara.

The founding partners will work together to accelerate the necessary technology, component manufacturing and construction advancements, market developments and investment for green hydrogen build-out.

Meeting their goals will require roughly $110 billion of investment, the partners believe, and will deliver more than 120,000 jobs.

US think tank the Rocky Mountain Institute will play a supporting role in helping the group meet its targets.

ACWA Power chief executive Paddy Padmanathan said he sees no technical barriers to driving costs down to $2,000/tonne – a potential tipping point at which green hydrogen and its derivative fuels become the energy sector choice across multiple sectors in regions where ample near-term demand exists, according to the Hydrogen Council.

Meanwhile, research by global investment bank Goldman Sachs suggests green hydrogen can become a $10 trillion market by 2030 and could support up to 25% of the world’s energy needs by 2050.

Members of the Green Hydrogen Catapult are already involved in several renewable hydrogen schemes.

CWP Renewables is co-developing the 26GW Asian Renewable Energy Hub, Ørsted and Yara are working together on a 100MW wind-powered electrolyser in the Netherlands, while Iberdrola recently launched a green hydrogen unit and invested $150 million in the segment’s first projects.