To complement its core business, supported by its extensive experience in the renewables sector, the Nordex Group has begun early initiatives in the green hydrogen market.
The Group has recently entered into two strategic joint ventures: one for the manufacturing of electrolyzers, a key component in the production of green hydrogen, and the second for developing large green hydrogen assets. Experts expect demand for hydrogen to grow exponentially by around 700 percent over the next thirty years. To achieve the target of net zero by 2050, it is required that the majority of this be achieved by clean sources.
José Luis Blanco, CEO of the Nordex Group, explains the rationale behind the company’s hydrogen activities: “With two joint ventures, the Nordex Group is establishing a presence in the hydrogen value chain, while, in parallel, continuing the company’s strategy of focusing on a low risk profile.”
Joint venture with Acciona: Developing green hydrogen projects
The joint venture with Acciona, Nordex H2 S.L, will develop green hydrogen projects in areas with abundant onshore wind resources. These resources are located in areas that are not connected to conventional power grids, and where green hydrogen can also be produced at a competitive cost. Bolstered by the company’s previous project development expertise in wind, the Nordex Group has built an attractive pipeline of green hydrogen projects throughout interesting geographies, for example, in the United States and Latin America.
ACCIONA has bought a 50 percent stake in this new Nordex Group venture for EUR 68 million – equally shared between ACCIONA S.A. and ACCIONA Energía – to fund the further development and expansion of the business.
With a target renewable energy development pipeline of 50 GW, the joint venture’s goal is to develop projects that will produce 0.5 million tons of green hydrogen annually within the next ten years. The first projects would be ready-to-build by 2027.
Each of the projects, whose minimum size will be 1 GW of installed renewable power, will be deployed through strategic agreements with other public and private companies and institutions interested in the production or mass consumption of green hydrogen.
“We are very happy to now accelerate these achievements together with Acciona, a strong partner with extensive expertise in large infrastructure projects,” says José Luis Blanco, CEO of the Nordex Group. “This joint venture reinforces our shared commitment to a decisive contribution towards the decarbonization of the world’s economy.”
Joint venture with Sodena: Developing electrolyzers for green hydrogen production
The second initiative, “Nordex Electrolyzers”, aims to develop, manufacture and market electrolyzers using proprietary technology. Both the Nordex Group and Sodena, a public company of the Government of Navarra, will allocate EUR 15 million to this initiative over the next five years to promote the development of a commercial prototype and its first industrial deployment. Experts expect demand for electrolyzers to grow from a very marginal capacity base today to 400 GW by 2030.
The Nordex Group – a profile
The Group has installed around 44 GW of wind energy capacity in over 40 markets and generated revenues of EUR 5.7 billion in 2022. The Company currently employs a workforce of approx. 9,100. The joint manufacturing capacity includes factories in Germany, Spain, Brazil, the United States, India, and Mexico. The product portfolio is focused on onshore turbines in the 4 to 6.X MW class, which are tailor-made for the market requirements of countries with limited space and regions with limited grid capacity.
