Vitol buys 10% stake in Norway’s Green Hydrogen producer Gen2 Energy

Vitol, the world’s biggest independent oil trader, has announced its acquisition of a 10% equity interest in Gen2 Energy, a Norwegian green hydrogen producer, for an undisclosed sum. Over the last few years, the Dutch energy and commodity trading company has been expanding its foothold in the renewables sector and made investment commitments of $1 billion to green projects across the world.

Gen2 uses Norway’s surplus hydroelectric power to produce the fuel, and aims to develop, build and operate a value chain for green hydrogen derived from 100% renewable energy by 2023. At present, the company is working on its first plant in the north of the country, and upon completion, it will have a capacity of 80MW and will produce 11.7kt of green hydrogen per annum. Production at this site is expected to begin by December 2023. Alongside, the development of a second green hydrogen facility with a capacity of 300 MW is also underway in southwest Norway.

Jonas Meyer, the Norwegian producer’s Chief Executive Officer, said, “We are very pleased to successfully complete our strategic financing round with Vitol as an Anchor Investor. Gen2 Energy is working diligently to build large-scale production and distribution of green hydrogen with zero emissions throughout the value chain, and we could not have wished for a better partner than Vitol.”

It is when the gas is extracted from water using electrolysis powered by non-fossil fuels, that Hydrogen is characterised as green. The gas appears to be blue if natural gas is used to produce it and the CO2 emissions are captured, while it appears grey if the same process is followed but without CO2 storage.

Chris Bake, Managing Director, Vitol said, “We are pleased to be involved in this exciting project. Hydrogen will be a core component of the energy mix of the future and key part of the path to net-zero.”

Norway is considered one of the cleanest economies of the world. Last November, Stavanger-headquartered Equinor  announced its goal to produce net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The Norwegian state-owned multinational energy company plans to do so by expanding its renewable energy capacity to 12-16 GW by 2035 and by investing in hydrogen and carbon capture and storage.