Norway's state-owned energy company Statkraft and green investment firm Aker Horizons have joined hands to jointly explore green hydrogen and ammonia production opportunities in India and Brazil, eying steel and fertilizer industries here.
Aker Horizons is investing in the collaboration through its portfolio company Aker Clean Hydrogen that's active in integrated hydrogen, ammonia and methanol production.
In India, the duo will explore fully-integrated renewable power generation and green hydrogen production. It will be targeted towards domestic hard-to-abate industries as steel, while green ammonia will be deployed for domestic use and export, stated the 2 partners.
Calling India the world's 2nd largest hydrogen consumer with close to 7 million tons (MT) of grey hydrogen consumption annually, they said its appetite is estimated to grow to 12 MT by 2030 and about 28 MT by 2050. In India, Statkraft counts 150 MW of solar energy projects currently under development.
In Brazil, the world's '4th largest' fertilizer consumer, the 2 partners along with Sowitec are working to bring online a large-scale hybrid project comprising wind and solar energy, hydrogen and ammonia for the fertilizer industry in Bahia state. It is scheduled to come online in 2027. It is the maiden project of the trio as part of their collaboration to develop Power-to-X projects in Bahia.
They see an opportunity for green fuels to power the local fertilizer industry of Brazil as the nation currently imports 80% of fertilizers to meet demand, but with the government's 2022-2050 National Fertilizer Plan, it is encouraging local, sustainable supply.
For the trio, replacing imported grey ammonia with locally produced green ammonia in Brazil offers prospects to decarbonize the agricultural industry, reduce import dependence and create a new green industry.
"Both India and Brazil are large consumers of hydrogen, have supportive governmental policies and benefit from world-class renewable energy resources, which offers significant opportunities for green hydrogen and ammonia production," said Aker Clean Hydrogen's CEO Knut Nyborg.
Recently, global steel producer ArcelorMittal engaged Greenko to set up a 975 MW solar and wind power project, supported by a 250 MW hydro pumped storage facility to power the company's local presence in India for steel production (see 975 MW RE Project Partnership In India).