Norwegian energy company Equinor has scrapped plans to export hydrogen to Germany over fears of high costs and low demand, Reuters reports.
The company had signed a memorandum of understanding with German utility RWE in January 2023 setting out plans to build a hydrogen supply chain for German power plants.
Equinor was to produce “blue” hydrogen from natural gas and export it to hydrogen-ready gas power plants in Germany through the world’s first offshore hydrogen pipeline.
The aim was to replace Germany’s coal-fired power stations.
The companies envisaged jointly owning the power plants. They would initially be fuelled with natural gas, but would move to hydrogen as supply and technology became available.
More than 95% of the carbon dioxide produced when gas is turned into hydrogen would have been captured and stored under the seabed.
A spokesperson for Equinor told Reuters: “The hydrogen pipeline hasn’t proved to be viable. That also implies that hydrogen production plans are also put aside.”
Last year, Equinor’s chief executive Anders Opedal said the cost of the total supply chain could run into “tens of billion euros”, and that the pipeline alone would cost some €3bn.
Equinor decided it could not proceed unless it had guaranteed sales and concluded that the market for hydrogen was not ready to support such an ambitious scheme.
Plans to develop “hydrogen-ready” gas plants will go ahead, but the hydrogen for them will not come from Norway.
RWE said the plants could go online after 2030 if the German government provided sufficient subsidies.
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