Germany-headquartered developer Hy2gen plans to build a 200MW green hydrogen-to-e-fuels plant in the port of Oulu in northern Finland, the company announced today (Wednesday).

 

Hy2gen has struck a land reservation agreement with the port for the site, located on the uninhabited island of Vihreäsaari (pictured).

 

Green hydrogen from the proposed project would be processed into “carbon-based” e-fuels (eg, methanol, e-methane or or synthetic aviation fuels, known as e-SAFs) for the hard-to-abate industries, Hy2gen said, citing the maritime and aviation sectors as examples.

 

No timeline has yet been given for the project, nor has the company yet decided exactly which e-fuels it will ultimately make.

 

However, the project timeline will align with the Port of Oulu's industrial development plan, as well as with on-going work to connect the port area to a 400kV power line, Hy2gen told Hydrogen Insight, noting that the final end-product will depend on “availability of resources” and site conditions. A decision will be made on the latter point during a feasibility study

“This does not yet constitute Hy2gen’s final investment decision, but now that the City of Oulu has granted the planning reservation, the company will begin preparing more detailed plans,” Hy2gen said in a statement, noting that it will present further details at a regional conference in February 2026.

 

Hy2gen already operates the 6.3MW green hydrogen-to-methane project in Germany, which in May became the country’s first operator to produce molecules certified as renewable fuel of non-biological origin (RFNBO).

 

The company claims to have 3.5GW of renewable hydrogen, ammonia, methanol and other power-to-X projects in planning or construction, with its total project pipeline spanning 15GW of capacity.

 

Several other companies have also picked the Port of Oulu to site their green hydrogen developments — leading both Hy2gen and the city authorities to claim that Oulu is now the largest e-fuels hub in the Baltic region.

 

In February, France’s Verso announced a co-operation agreement with the city to develop a €1.4bn ($1.62bn) plant capable of producing 80,000 tonnes of e-SAF per year, with delivery planned for 2030.

 

Finnish firm P2X Solutions is additionally planning a 100MW plant in the city.

 

And in April, the city government signed three land reservation agreements with green hydrogen projects totalling a combined 1.5GW of capacity.

 

Germany-based Energiequelle plans to build a 5MW electrolyser and a refuelling station for fuel-cell buses and other heavy vehicles as the first phase of its project by 2028. After this, it would scale electrolyser capacity up to 10-50MW in the second stage, reaching 100-500MW in the third phase by 2033.

 

Compatriot ABO Energy also plans to install up to 600MW of electrolyser capacity over two or three phases, with the first phase planned for first operation by 2036.

 

A third, unnamed company is also planning to build up to 400MW of capacity by 2030, according to the city government of Oulu.

 

Source: HydrogenInsight