Operational pilots are already in place across production, maritime, and transport. NORHyWAY will now scale these into a fully integrated hydrogen value chain, connecting the Arctic to Europe with renewable energy at its core.
A total of approximately €963m in planned investments. Four sectors – maritime, road freight, energy storage and coastal industry – developed in parallel across interconnected use cases. NORHyWAY is built around a clear proposition: that green hydrogen can become commercially viable at scale, across multiple sectors, and compete with fossil fuels on price.
Led by RENERGY (Renewable Energy Cluster), with SINTEF as technical coordinator, NORHyWAY is backed by €20m from the EU’s Clean Hydrogen Partnership through Horizon Europe. The project builds on operational pilots already in place across hydrogen production, maritime applications and transport, and moves these into large-scale deployment. At the same time, new pilots – such as hydrogen-based grid flexibility – are being developed and tested as part of the system.
What gives NORHyWAY its credibility is its industrial depth, built on experience from partners already operating hydrogen infrastructure, combined with four complementary use cases with independent offtakers. This includes strong maritime expertise, existing production and bunkering activities, and active deployment in heavy transport. The close integration with SINTEF ensures that research, performance monitoring and optimisation are directly embedded in commercial operations – linking real-world deployment with continuous learning and improvement.
The vision: 37,081 tonnes by 2030
By 2030, NORHyWAY aims to produce 37,081 tonnes of green hydrogen per year, powered entirely by renewable electricity. That is equivalent to cutting up to 345,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually – the same as eliminating the emissions from over 109,000 tonnes of diesel.
“What we are doing now is building a market for green hydrogen by bringing together multiple offtakers across sectors. By connecting real demand with production and infrastructure, we are testing whether the business cases hold at scale – not in isolation, but across maritime, transport and energy at the same time.” – Ida Kallmyr Lerheim, Project Manager, NORHyWAY.
Four markets, one system
NORHyWAY is structured around four use cases that together form a single integrated system: production feeds storage, storage enables distribution, and distribution serves four end-use markets simultaneously. This integration is what allows NORHyWAY to test the full hydrogen value chain under real commercial conditions across sectors, not one at a time.
Blue economy
The blue economy is a key sector in Norway, currently dominated by fossil fuels.
In this use case, we will develop a complete hydrogen infrastructure for production, storage and bunkering at six strategic coastal hubs along the Norwegian coast.
GreenH will start by developing a 12.5 MW plant in Kristiansund – designed from the outset for modularity and replication at other locations, including Slagentangen in the south, Hammerfest in the Arctic north, Rogaland and Sandnessjøen.
The goal is to offer hydrogen in a gaseous, compressed form to the maritime sector, local industry and transport sector at a price that is competitive with fossil fuels.
NEVEL contributes expertise in industrial waste heat recovery, improving overall system efficiency.
Maritime H2
Maritime hydrogen faces significant market, technical and regulatory challenges. For the shipping industry, the transition involves considerable uncertainty related to costs, standardisation and approval processes. The aim of this use case is to address these barriers by accelerating market maturity and contributing to the development of a standardised hydrogen infrastructure along the Norwegian coast.
NORHyWAY will map regulatory and permitting bottlenecks for maritime hydrogen infrastructure and applications and develop roadmaps for more efficient and predictable approval processes. A key element is the establishment of a collaboration platform connecting shipbuilders, shipowners and bunkering operators, ensuring alignment across the value chain and enabling more streamlined deployment.
The use case builds on the first hydrogen-powered work vessel for the aquaculture industry, operating on compressed hydrogen supplied from a dedicated pilot production and maritime bunkering solution. This represents one of the earliest demonstrations of a complete maritime hydrogen value chain in Europe. The experience Moen Marin has gained through this first vessel will be used to design a new generation of hydrogen-powered service vessels adapted to North Sea conditions, while contributing to safer, more efficient and more replicable approval processes across the industry.
Road transport
The road transport use case focuses on deploying hydrogen in heavy-duty logistics by combining infrastructure, vehicles and real demand along a defined corridor. NORHyWAY is establishing a hydrogen transport corridor between Trondheim and Oslo, with replica corridors planned northwards to Bodø and eastwards towards Sweden, connecting the Arctic region to European markets.
Hydrogen refuelling infrastructure is being developed along the corridor through a combination of upgrades and new stations. ASKO is upgrading its existing refuelling station, while VIREON is responsible for developing four new stations, all operating at 700 bar to serve heavy-duty trucks. On the demand side, ASKO brings operational experience from running hydrogen-powered trucks in live logistics since 2020. Together with NH Transport, the partners will deploy additional hydrogen-powered Scania trucks, integrating hydrogen directly into day-to-day freight operations.
By bringing together infrastructure providers, transport operators and real offtakers, the use case demonstrates how hydrogen can function under commercial conditions in long-distance transport. The corridor approach enables coordinated deployment across partners, improving utilisation of infrastructure and contributing to the development of a scalable market for hydrogen in heavy-duty road transport.
Flexible grid
As renewable generation expands, grid bottlenecks and periods of surplus power are becoming an increasing challenge. The Flexible Grid use case explores how hydrogen can be used as an off-taker of stranded renewable energy, a medium for energy storage, and a source of on-demand electricity during peak load periods.
The first step is to assess the commercial feasibility of hydrogen-based power storage and reconversion across different potential pilot configurations. This includes evaluating business models, identifying the most suitable locations, and selecting the optimal technical solution for a demonstrator. Based on this work, the use case will move towards a final investment decision (FID) for a pilot installation.
In the proposed system, surplus renewable electricity is converted into hydrogen via electrolysis, stored, and later reconverted into electricity using fuel cells, providing grid balancing services that can be traded in energy markets. Nedstack supplies proton exchange membrane fuel cell systems, Siemens AS leads grid integration, and SINTEF provides technical and commercial analysis. The pilot installation will be operated and monitored over a two-year period to validate the business case for larger-scale deployment.
Safety, digitalisation and sustainability
Underpinning the four use cases is a set of cross-cutting activities that ensure NORHyWAY operates safely, efficiently and in a way that can be replicated across Europe. Vysus Group leads safety planning and compliance across all use cases, while TEKY develops standardised data models and a common SCADA infrastructure, enabling remote monitoring, unified automation and more efficient deployment across sites.
A key element is the development of the H2 Marketplace, a platform designed to aggregate demand and increase visibility of supply and offtake across sectors. By linking producers, infrastructure and end users, the platform supports market transparency and contributes to the establishment of a functioning hydrogen market beyond individual use cases.
The Universidade de Vigo conducts lifecycle and sustainability assessments to ensure compliance with EU environmental standards. SINTEF Energi leads dissemination activities, while HyEnergy and LC Innoconsult International focus on replication and exploitation of the results. HySTAR contributes to competence development, and Trøndelag Fylkeskommune supports regional engagement and connection to local communities across the use case locations. HySTAR and Trøndelag Fylkeskommune are associated partners in the project.
Built to be replicated
Through Horizon Europe, NORHyWAY is connected to the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, Hydrogen Europe, and the broader EU hydrogen ecosystem. The project is also the initiator of the North Sea Circle Collaboration, a network that will be established by NORHyWAY to connect hydrogen valleys across Europe, including HiWhyV, HYCELAND, CONVEY and SH2AMROCK.
But the European ambition goes beyond participation in networks. The business cases being developed – in maritime bunkering, long-distance hydrogen transport, grid flexibility and coastal industrial hubs – are designed from the outset to be transferable. Other regions, other operators, other valleys: the goal is that what works in NORHyWAY does not stay in NORHyWAY.
NORHyWAY consortium partners
RENERGY / Fremtidens Industri (project coordinator) · SINTEF (technical coordinator, R&D) SINTEF Energi (dissemination )· GreenH (H₂ production) · Moen Marin (ship design) · NEVEL (waste heat recovery) · Siemens (technology development) · Nedstack (fuel cell systems) · VIREON (H₂ refuelling stations) · ASKO (heavy transport) · NH Transport (heavy transport) · Universiade de Vigo (sustainability assessments) · Vysus Norway (safety) · TEKY (digital integration) · HyEnergy (replication) · LC Innoconsult International (exploitation) · Associated partners: HySTAR (competence development) · Trøndelag Fylkeskommune (regional engagement)
Disclaimer
The project is supported by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership and co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the granting authority. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Please Note: This is a Commercial Profile
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