Topsoe to build world’s largest electrolyzer production facility

Topsoe, a global leader in decarbonisation technologies based in Lyngby, Denmark, announced plans to construct the world’s largest and most advanced industrial scale electrolyzer production plant. Topsoe’s ambition is to rapidly accelerate the adoption of green solutions in particular within Power-to-X. In this field, the company has the leading technology to decarbonise hard-to-abate sectors such as transport, chemicals, steel, and cement.

The new electrolyzer production plant, which will be constructed in Herning, Denmark, will be operational by 2024 and will have an annual capacity of 500 megawatts (MW) with scalability up to 5 gigawatts (GW), making it one of the first industrial scale plants of its kind. 

Construction is scheduled to begin in the second half of this year, subject to Topsoe’s Board and other regulatory approvals.

”We are willing and able to support society’s green ambitions and the need to accelerate the energy transition, and we have the technology to do it. With our new electrolyzer production plant, we lead the way in speeding up commercial-size Power-to-X solutions, and we do it with our highly innovative technology that outmatches technologies currently in the market,” said Roeland Baan, Topsoe CEO.

Topsoe is in advanced discussions with a number of potential partners over future offtake agreements and commitments to reserve capacity from the electrolyzer plant, the company said.

Developing a strong Power-to-X industry in Europe will also enforce EU’s ambitions of being independent of energy imports from other regions. The milestone in ensuring large-scale availability of electrolyzers for Power-to-X solutions takes place at the same time as Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and state leaders from Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, and Belgium signed an agreement, in which the parties agree to invest in a ten-fold capacity increase of offshore wind by 2050. The political agreement ensures significant availability of the renewable power needed to supply future Power-to-X facilities in the EU.

“The agreement between the EU Commission and the four North Sea countries is an important step in the transition to renewable energy. At Topsoe, we are also ready to invest. Our mission as a company is to reduce society’s emissions in 2022 by 12 million tonnes of CO2. By introducing solutions to decarbonise transportation and other hard to abate-sectors, we secure significant CO2 emissions not only in 2022 but for years to come, while also moving closer to energy independence,” Baan said.

Power-to-X is a number of electricity conversion, energy storage, and reconversion pathways that use surplus electric power, typically during periods where fluctuating renewable energy generation exceeds load. The X in the terminology can refer to one of the following: power-to-ammonia, power-to-chemicals, power-to-fuel, power-to-gas, power-to-hydrogen, power-to-liquid, power-to-methane, power to food, power-to-power, and power-to-syngas. Power-to-X conversion technologies allow for the decoupling of power from the electricity sector for use in other sectors (such as transport or chemicals), possibly using power that has been provided by additional investments in generation.