Norway, Germany deepen green industry cooperation

Norway and Germany are looking to deepen their cooperation with respect to hydrogen, battery technology, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and renewable energy from offshore wind.

The two countries today issued a joint declaration on partnering on climate, renewable energy and green industry and a separate joint statement on hydrogen aimed at ensuring hydrogen supply from Norway to Germany.

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The joint declarations followed a meeting today in Oslo of Norwegian government representatives, including prime minister Jonas Gahr Store, with Germany’s vice chancellor Robert Habeck. They were accompanied by a memorandum of understanding between energy groups Equinor ASA and RWE AG, which committed to working together to develop value chains for low-carbon hydrogen.

“The Norwegian Government is working to ensure that Norway will continue to be a stable and reliable supplier of oil and gas to Europe. We are also working to further develop our role as an energy nation by, for example, decarbonising gas through hydrogen production and carbon capture and storage,” said Minister of Petroleum and Energy Terje Aasland.

According to the declaration on hydrogen, both countries will seek to accelerate the necessary framework for a functioning European hydrogen market. The document also says that “to realise the fastest possible high-volumes of hydrogen with zero or low-emissions, we will jointly plan the use of hydrogen produced from natural gas with Carbon Capture and Storage (blue hydrogen) for a transition period.”

The countries want to ensure a large-scale supply of hydrogen from Norway to Germany by 2030, potentially enabled by a large-scale pipeline. The results of a joint feasibility study into large-scale transport of hydrogen from Norway to Germany, and carbon dioxide (CO2) transport from Germany to Norway are expected in the spring of 2023.

In the broader declaration, the parties express a desire to continue their cooperation on renewable energy, in particular offshore wind. “We will build on the existing efforts to develop offshore wind, including offshore grid infrastructure, with the future possibility of developing hybrid cooperation projects, in the North Seas Energy Cooperation and through bilateral formats,” the declaration reads.

The countries further plan to intensify cooperation on raw materials and related strategic value chains and to look at possibilities of capture, transport and long-term storage of CO2 at the Norwegian continental shelf.