This equipment should make it possible to produce hydrogen used to decarbonize industry in the mouth of the Seine.
:quality(50)/2023/07/06/64a68815cd1a7_placeholder-36b69ec8.png)
Published
Update
Reading time: 1 min
:quality(50)/2024/03/18/000-34796b9-65f878bc74fe2612395450.jpg)
The State will grant aid of 149 million euros to finance the installation of a second electrolyser near Le Havre, announced Monday March 18 the Minister Delegate for Industry, Roland Lescure. The electrolyser, with a power of 100 megawatts (MW), will produce hydrogen to decarbonize the processes of the Yara nitrogen fertilizer plant, which is one of the 50 industrial sites with the highest greenhouse gas emissions in France, said the minister’s office, visiting the region on Monday.
The aid is granted to the French start-up Lhyfe, the architect of the project. It comes from the France 2030 investment program, intended to encourage future, disruptive or decarbonization technologies via the European Piiec programs (important program of common European interest). The total investment for this project reaches 200 to 300 million euros, Lhyfe said.
Commissioning planned for 2028
The commissioning of the electrolyser, on land adjoining that of Yara, is expected for 2028, added the first producer of green and renewable hydrogen in France. The low-carbon hydrogen that will be produced on this site will replace “15% of natural gas” used by the Yara factory, the ministry said. The company today has three sites across the country, in Vendée, Morbihan and Haute-Garonne. “Electricity supply” used to power this electrolyzer “will include renewable energies available on the French network”as well as “nuclear energy” when these green energies “are not available”given their intermittency, added the ministry, questioned by AFP.
This project is in addition to the first low-carbon electrolyser project in the region, called Normand’Hy, with a power of 200 MW, planned from 2025 in Port-Jérôme (Seine-Maritime) by Air Liquide to essentially decarbonize the neighboring TotalEnergies refining-chemical platform in Gonfreville. The total investment in the Normand’Hy project, which received 190 million euros in public aid, is 400 million euros.