Consortium to build major green hydrogen & ammonia facility in Portugal

A consortium of Portugal's Madoqua Renewables, Dutch energy transition developer Power2X and Danish find manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners has announced plans to construct a €1 billion industrial-scale facility for the production of green hydrogen and ammonia at the Sines Industrial and Logistics Zone (ZILS) in Portugal.

The consortium says that the MadoquaPower2X project will use renewable energy and have an electrolysis capacity of 500MW. It is the first project to be installed at the future energy and technological hub of Sines, with an industrial-scale production of 50,000 tonnes of green hydrogen and 500,000 tonnes of green ammonia per year.

Read more: Huge new €100m green hydrogen valley planned for Portgual

The Portuguese government has put Sines, a port in the Setúbal region, to the south of Lisbon, at the heart of its EN-H2 hydrogen strategy, which was passed in 2020. The strategy's objective is to ease the country towards its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. Portugal is considered one of the early movers when it comes to the energy transition, and the government is leveraging this position.

The hydrogen produced at MadoquaPower2X will be used by local industry as well as being processed into green ammonia for export from the port terminal.

"We are proud to bring this strong consortium to Portugal and collaborate with partners across the green hydrogen and hydrogen derivatives value chain. Portugal is structurally well-positioned to play a leading role in the emerging energy transition space in Europe," said Rogaciano Rebelo, CEO of Madoqua.

"The project, along with the development of dedicated renewable power generation assets, will contribute significantly towards Portugal’s National Hydrogen Strategy."

MadoquaPower2X will be powered by locally-sourced renewable energy, largely from the wind and solar farms being developed in parallel to ensure a continued supply throughout the project's lifetime.

The project is expected to be fully permitted and ready for a final investment decision by the end of 2023, with construction to commence shortly after, and the first hydrogen production coming by the middle of the decade.

"Power2X is excited to develop this flagship project together with our partners in order to accelerate Europe’s energy transition and contribute significantly to the 2050 net-zero target. MadoquaPower2X will pave the way for decarbonisation of critical industrial processes and reduced dependency on natural gas imports," said Occo Roelofsen, CEO of Power2X.

Read more: Portugal becomes fourth EU country to quit coal

It is anticipated that MadoquaPower2X will contribute significantly toward Portugal's EN-H2 strategy. By 2030, the project will account for almost 25% of the country's envisaged 2GW electrolyser capacity. The consortium said that it will also lead to the creation of 1,000 direct and indirect jobs.

It is also claimed that MadoquaPower2X could meet 100% of Portugal’s gas grid hydrogen injection targets if preferred over ammonia production.

Consortium members are also looking at further opportunities for the potential expansion of the project to produce as much as one million tonnes of green ammonia per year.

Subsequent phases will commence development in 2024, with full commissioning expected before 2030.

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