Everyone had been waiting for Minister of Climate, Energy and Utilities Lars Aagaard (M), who had announced his arrival for the opening of European Energy's new green PtX plant in Måde south of Esbjerg. But the minister had canceled his participation in the opening speech, as he was needed for budget negotiations in Copenhagen.
This saved Lars Aagaard from the debris and rain in West Jutland, but he also avoided listening to the critical voices about the delay in the hydrogen pipeline to Germany. It is a pipeline that the industry would rather see established today than tomorrow.
European Energy's CEO Knud Erik Andersen was very happy to see the guests at the opening. The energy company had hired a bus to drive the invited guests from the company's headquarters in Søborg to West Jutland.
- Good to see you. It is a special day when we open our green hydrogen plant, said Knud Erik Andersen, who emphasized that there is already an existing chain from the wind turbines in the background of the plant out towards the North Sea and on through the electrolysis to the customers.
- We have not been able to do it without our customers, who are Air Liquide and the Port of Esbjerg, who purchase the green hydrogen. At the same time, the surplus heat from the plant goes to the district heating at DIN Forsyning, said the CEO, who also did not forget Esbjerg Municipality:
- We have had a really strong collaboration with Esbjerg Municipality, which has helped to make it all possible.
75 pct. Danish
There is also another thing that means a lot to Knud Erik Andersen, who is also co-owner and co-founder of European Energy.
- 75 pct. of everything here is Danish, and we speak everything from the electrolyzers. That is something that is important to me. Now the plant must be tested before we start to scale up, explained Knud Erik Andersen and came to the very central and overarching message of the day:
- There can only be 700 kg of hydrogen on a truckload of hydrogen. We cannot deliver green hydrogen to Germany like this in the future. Let's now sit down and figure out how we can get the 70 km pipeline built earlier.
The message could not be more clearly addressed to the Minister of Climate, Energy and Utilities, Lars Aagaard, who is the minister responsible for the area.
Support from the mayor
The mayor of Esbjerg Municipality, Jesper Frost Rasmussen (V), was also quick to grab the ball from Knud Erik Andersen.
- You would think I had read Knud Erik's speech, but I haven't. While we are celebrating the opening here, we risk having a bottleneck here with the delayed hydrogen pipeline. We need the government to match this plant with the necessary pipeline so that the green hydrogen can be exported from here to Germany, concluded the clearly proud mayor.
Last but not least, the Director of the Danish Energy Agency, Kristoffer Böttzauw, came on stage as the opening speaker and stand-in for Lars Aagaard.
- Practice makes perfect. Just look at what we did with the Horns Rev 1-2-3 offshore wind farms. Now the time has come for us to do the same with hydrogen. This plant is an example of how it should be done in the future, because this is where the entire value chain is, said Kristoffer Böttzauw.
The director of the agency did not avoid the important hydrogen pipeline to Germany either.
- Hydrogen has the potential to combine everything that we are good at. There is still a long way to go, and there are high expectations. And then the hydrogen pipeline is not coming as quickly as hoped, he said and turned to a hope:
- Hopefully, the facility here will mean that there will be customers for electricity and hydrogen when the wind turbines start spinning in the North Sea. Thanks to European Energy for starting to develop the potential and helping to create the perfect one.
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