The Netherlands/Australia – Nobian and Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG) are joining forces to form an industrial green hydrogen player, the Hydrogen Chemistry Company (HyCC). HyCC will provide safe, reliable, and affordable green hydrogen solutions to help decarbonize large industries such as aviation, steel, chemicals and refineries.
Through this partnership, the companies are taking a unique step by creating a company that is specialized in water electrolysis to produce green hydrogen from renewable power at an industrial scale. With Nobian’s experience in large-scale electrolysis and GIG’s resources and project development experience, HyCC will be able to accelerate investments and the development of more large-scale projects.
HyCC will launch with a purpose-built team of hydrogen specialists spanning expertise across technology, manufacturing, project management and commercial development as well as a pipeline of more than 400 megawatt of electrolysis projects. This includes a planned 60 megawatt facility in the north of the Netherlands to supply green hydrogen for renewable methanol and aviation fuels, a 100 megawatt project near Amsterdam to enable sustainable steel production, and a 250 MW project in Rotterdam to replace fossil-based hydrogen. The deal will allow HyCC to grow this pipeline and expand further into the European market.
40 gigawatt in 2030
Kate Vidgen, Head of Industrial Transition and Clean Fuels, Macquarie’s Green Investment Group:
‘Green hydrogen is vital to reduce emissions in a wide range of industries that are traditionally difficult to decarbonize – from steel and chemicals to shipping and aviation. We expect a rapid acceleration in the energy transition and are excited to invest alongside an experienced business in this field, to accelerate its development and help industries become more sustainable.’
Marcel Galjee, Managing Director HyCC: ‘We have a strong technical and commercial team and a healthy pipeline of large green hydrogen projects. The backing of these two leading companies allows us to further scale-up our portfolio to become a leader in the safe and reliable supply of green hydrogen and make a critical contribution to the EU’s target of realizing 40 GW of hydrogen electrolyzers by 2030.’
Chlor-alkali
GIG and Nobian will each have a 50% share in HyCC, and the deal is expected to close in March 2022 (subject to regulatory approvals).
GIG has already announced hydrogen partnerships in a number of different geographies with a focus on supporting the industrial transition and the move to cleaner fuels. Nobian already operates multiple large-scales electrolysis facilities in the Netherlands and Germany for the production of chlor-alkali, using a technology similar to that of water electrolysis.
