Topsoe intends to construct the world’s largest and most advanced industrial-scale electrolyzer production plant. The plant will produce high-temperature Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Cells (SOEC)—which have a higher energy efficiency that competing technologies.

The new electrolyzer production plant, which will be constructed in Herning, Denmark, will be operational by 2024 and have an annual capacity of 500 MW with scalability up to 5 GW, making it one of the first industrial-scale plants of its kind. Construction is scheduled to begin in the second half of this year, subject to Board and other regulatory approvals.

The Topsoe SOEC electrolyzer is a compact stack built primarily from abundant, low-cost ceramic materials enclosed within a metal housing. To produce hydrogen, it utilizes electricity to split water molecules (H₂O) into hydrogen (H₂) and oxygen (O₂). This is accomplished by three components: an anode, a cathode, and an electrolyte. The cathode splits water molecules, via reduction, into hydrogen and oxide ions, after which the oxide ions are transported through the electrolyte to the anode and oxidized into oxygen.

The high-temperature SOEC unit’s high degree of automation and auto-response capability, across the entire hydrogen process, minimize oversight and training requirements—as well as associated risks—for efficient, convenient on-site hydrogen production and supply.

Topsoe’s ambition is to accelerate rapidly the adoption of green solutions—in particular within Power-to-X.

We are willing and able to support society’s green ambitions and the need to accelerate the energy transition, and we have the technology to do it. With our new electrolyzer production plant, we lead the way in speeding up commercial-size Power-to-X solutions, and we do it with our highly innovative technology that outmatches technologies currently in the market.

—Roeland Baan, CEO at Topsoe

Topsoe is already seeing considerable interest in Power-to-X solutions and is in advanced discussion with a number of potential partners over future offtake agreements and commitments to reserve capacity from the electrolyzer plant.

Developing a strong Power-to-X industry in Europe will also enforce the EU’s ambitions of being independent of energy imports from other regions. The milestone in ensuring large-scale availability of electrolyzers for Power-to-X solutions takes place at the same time as Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and state leaders from Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, and Belgium signed an agreement, in which the parties agree to invest in a ten-fold capacity increase of offshore wind by 2050.

The political agreement ensures significant availability of the renewable power needed to supply future Power-to-X facilities in the EU.