Enel, with a strong track record of project commercialization, extensive development pipeline and large renewable operations footprint in the US, will leverage NextChem’s hydrogen technology and engineering expertise to grow its green hydrogen business in the US. The project, which is expected to be operational in 2023, will convert renewable energy from one of EGPNA’s solar plants in the United States into green hydrogen to be supplied to a bio-refinery.
“This new partnership is the latest milestone in the Enel Group’s commitment to promoting the development of green hydrogen,” said Salvatore Bernabei, CEO of Enel Green Power. “We are actively scouting for opportunities in this segment in several parts of the world, both in Europe and in the Americas, and we look forward to joining forces with partners such as Maire Tecnimont to make the most of the significant potential that green hydrogen represents for the decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors.”
Pierroberto Folgiero, Maire Tecnimont Group and NextChem Chief Executive Officer, commented: "We are really proud to be Enel’s partner of choice in this industrial initiative which enhances our Group’s expertise in the hydrogen chemistry applied at the production of green hydrogen from solar renewables and represents a relevant step in the development of our green hydrogen initiatives, that are one of the pillars of our hydrogen strategy. Acting as enabler and facilitator in integrated technological schemes is also a key point in our business strategy. The American market is once more really interesting for us and we are looking at it with great attention.”
Under the agreement, NextChem will act as technology and engineering partner and full turnkey EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contractor, providing Enel Green Power with the necessary technical assistance in relation to the development and implementation of the project.
As an early leader in green hydrogen development, Enel Green Power is actively evaluating opportunities to co-locate electrolyzers, which use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, across its development pipeline in the US. By combining two or more technologies, like solar and an electrolyzer, Enel Green Power is able to create an integrated plant that can leverage on more sources of revenue and/or generate further risk mitigation options. In the US, the company is focused on states with an existing operational presence, such as Texas, Utah and North Dakota.
This agreement represents the first application of a Framework Cooperation Agreement between Enel and NextChem to evaluate the implementation of joint projects, including the testing of advanced technologies to increase efficiency in the production of green hydrogen using renewables.
Maire Tecnimont Group has exhaustive experience in petrochemicals and downstream projects, with more than 100 projects on hydrogen production. NextChem is its dedicated company operating in the energy transition with a focus on deploying solutions in carbon footprint reduction, in hydrogen production – green, blue and ‘circular’ (obtained by waste conversion) -, purification and storage, in plastics recycling, in the biofuels and in biochemicals. In the past months, NextChem has enriched its technological portfolio for the energy transition in the area of biofuels with technologies for the production of renewable diesel, of Ethanol2G from cellulosic biomass and of bioEthanol from syngas fermentation. In the area of circular economy, NextChem is actively developing the market for its proprietary Upcycling technology MyReplastTM and for waste to chemicals solutions.
Enel Green Power is developing projects in the green hydrogen segment in Italy, Spain, Chile and the United States. As green hydrogen is a new business application, the Enel Group is monitoring the relevant market developments to identify the most efficient way to achieve its plans to grow its green hydrogen capacity to over 2 GW by 2030. In North America, Enel Green Power is a leading owner and operator of renewable energy plants, with a presence in 18 US states and one Canadian province. The company operates around 70 plants with a managed capacity of over 6 GW.