Statkraft

In November 2022, Germany’s Energie Baden Württemberg and steelmaker Salzgitter Group signed one of Europe’s first power purchase agreements (PPAs) for hydrogen production. More have followed and with the European Union introducing rules to govern green hydrogen, an industry is planning for its future.

Plug Power has revealed plans to develop three green hydrogen production plants in Finland, while Statkraft is set to increase its investments in the German hydrogen market.

In other news, Plug Power revealed plans to build a 35-ton-per-day green hydrogen generation plant at Belgium’s Port of Antwerp-Bruges and UK researchers developed an artificial leaf device made from bismuth oxyiodide that is able to harvest sunlight to produce hydrogen fuels.

New investments and partnerships announced this week see hydrogen projects developing across Europe, India, Asia and more. The current climate of high prices for natural gas has led one company to exclaim that green hydrogen is now competitive with its fossil fuel produced ‘grey’ counterpart, and research continues into optimizing hydrogen supply chains and smoothing its integration into the energy landscape.

Norwegian hydropower giant and Europe’s largest renewable energy generator, Statkraft, has published its annual “Low Emissions Scenario”, which describes investment in green projects as “unstoppable”, while calling for a dramatic scaling up for renewables, electrification and green hydrogen.

UK electricity retailers are ramping up their efforts to sign power purchase agreements for PV projects.

Re-Source 2021 took place in Amsterdam at the end of last week, and pv magazine was there to cover the event where the suppliers and sellers of renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs) meet the (largely corporate) buyers, though encouraging PPA uptake among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was among the major talking points, including ‘additionality’, de-risking renewable PPAs and 24/7 matching.

The move by hydropower leader Statkraft to acquire Solarcentury in late 2020 brought solar front and center to its renewables strategy. Christopher West, the head of central engineering for Statkraft’s solar engineering division, says that flexibility and the ability to adapt to specific site and market conditions are dictating project development in Europe.

The developer secured a ten-year power purchase agreement from Statkraft in June last year for almost all of the power expected to be generated by the unsubsidized plant in southwestern Spain.

It is hoped 100% solar home system installation–with householders able to buy, or lease on a PAYG basis–will offer a template for installation in remote communities across Africa.