Nel ASA has joined a network of Norwegian technology companies with international expansion plans.
The Nordic Industry Center network’s goal is to provide a forum for knowledge sharing, project development, and acceleration for Norwegian companies looking to participate in Chinese megaprojects and expand their business in China.
The Nordic Industry Center was founded by BI Norwegian Business School and Kongsberg Innovation and is based at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China’s top university. Nel signed a cooperation agreement with Nordic Industry Center in December of last year, and the agreement was officially signed on Thursday, at the Advisory Board’s first meeting, which was postponed due to corona restrictions.
Yara, the fertilizer company, also signed the agreement at the meeting, and other major Norwegian industry companies are in the process of joining the network as well. The partnership also includes the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO), the Global Green Hydrogen Organization, and the City of Oslo.
“The hydrogen market is developing extremely fast, and the geographical scope is broadening. In a few years we will probably see that some of the largest hydrogen projects are located in Asia, Latin-America, Australia and the Middle East. To be a partner in Nordic Industry Center can be valuable for us when approaching these important markets”, says Jon André Løkke.
Nel officially opened its new, fully automated electrolyser facility in Herya, Norway, last week. The factory currently has a capacity of 500 MW, but this can be increased to 2 GW.
“The next step for us will be to industrialize our PEM technology platform in a similar way that we have done with our Alkaline technology at Herøya, and we have initiated a site selection process in the US for both our Alkaline and PEM technology,” says Løkke.