Norwegian funding agency Enova has awarded Vireon a €10m ($10.4m) grant to build a four-station hydrogen refuelling corridor between Trondheim and Oslo, Norway.
The stations will be built to serve heavy-duty vehicles and offer green hydrogen at 350 and 700 bar. To secure redundancy, the corridor will offer truck drivers the option of two different routes between the two cities.
Additionally, Enova’s grant will provide support for Norwegian Hydrogen subsidiary to buy a fleet of hydrogen transport containers to distribute hydrogen from production sites to the refuelling stations.
Per Øyvind Voie © Vireon
Whilst Per Øyvind Voie, Vireon’s CEO, praised the decision to award the grant, he urged stakeholders in the hydrogen industry to “come together and realise these projects.”
The CEO added, “Hydrogen has faced some turbulent times recently, but we now have a unique opportunity to shift momentum.
“To make this happen, we need collaboration – from transportation companies to financial institutions, OEMs of trucks and refuelling station equipment to hydrogen producers.
“I urge everyone to join Vireon in making hydrogen a viable solution for zero-emission mobility.”
Last year, Vireon was granted €3.8m ($3.99m) to build a 5MW electrolyser facility in Finland as part of the Jyväskyla Hydrogen Hub, which plans to build a hydrogen refuelling station in its first phase.
Read more:Vireon to install 5MW electrolyser at Finnish hydrogen refuelling station
The electrolyser and station, anticipated to be operational this year, will fuel five hydrogen-powered buses.
The rough road ahead of hydrogen refuelling
As of 2023, more than 1,100 hydrogen refuelling stations (HRS) were in operation across the globe1, a 60% increase in deployment from 2021 to October last year. Asian markets saw the most growth in the refuelling sector, with Japan, China and South Korea boasting nearly 800 stations in total, significantly more than Europe with 2501.
Throughout the second half of 2023, more than 10 countries announced plans for hydrogen refuelling stations, mainly in Europe1. The Hydrogen Council predicts that the number of hydrogen refuelling stations deployed will increase if government targets are realised.
This includes Japan and South Korea’s ambitions to expand their networks to more than 600 stations by 2030. Alongside this, the EU’s Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR), adopted in July 2023, mandates the deployment of a hydrogen refuelling station every 200km along the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) and all “urban nodes.”
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