Making the commitment on Wednesday (March 9), Nel said its electrolyser plant at Herøya, Norway, can alone provide 500 MW of capacity to the market with the possibility to expand up to 2 GW. The company also has multiple other hydrogen projects that could undoubtably be scaled up to hit increased production efforts.

As reported by H2 View on Tuesday (March 8), the European Commission launches its REPowerEU plan as a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As part of this, it is hoped the EU will diversify its gas supplies, speed up the roll-out of renewable gases and replace gas in heating and power generation.

Read more: EU draws out plan to increase hydrogen production to replace Russian fossil fuels and gas dependency

Nel is one of the first companies active in the hydrogen sector to formally announce scale-up goals in order to support the European Commission’s clean energy target, however, many more are likely to follow as they look to cut dependence on Russia.

Jon André Løkke, CEO of Nel, said, “We are ready to add the electrolyser production capacity needed in Europe and abroad when required by the market.   Our brand-new and fully automated electrolyser manufacturing facility at Herøya is already producing at tree shifts. We are reaching new production records every week and will start a site selection process for additional production capacity in Europe.”

Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal, added, “It is time we tackle our vulnerabilities and rapidly become more independent in our energy choices. Let’s dash into renewable energy at lightning speed. Renewables are a cheap, clean, and potentially endless source of energy and instead of funding the fossil fuel industry elsewhere, they create jobs here. Putin’s war in Ukraine demonstrates the urgency of accelerating our clean energy transition.”