Norway's Statkraft and Skagerak Energi plan to provide green hydrogen as a marine fuel from a base in southern Norway.
Their first customer will be the yet-to-be-ordered vessel that won a DNV-led GreenBulk programme for zero-emissions shortsea shipping. The vessel is to be owned by coastal shipping specialist Egil Ulvans Rederi under long-term charter to HeidelbergCement and grain company Felleskjopet Agri.
In an announcement, Statkraft describes the fuelling solution as "involving container swapping with compressed hydrogen".
The plans for a hydrogen fuel centre is aligned with a Norwegian state "roadmap" that would set up five distribution hubs for hydrogen to replace fossil fuels on the water.
Statkraft is Norway's electric power utility and majority owner of Skien-based Skagerak Energi, serving the twin towns of Skien and Porsgrunn in southern Norway near the entrance to the Oslo Fjord.
In February, Statkraft announced a partnership with compatriot companies Yara and Aker Horizons to produce ammonia and hydrogen for marine fuel and other uses, beginning at Yara's ammonia facility at Heroya in Porsgrunn.
The news comes hot on the heels of an announcement by Belgium's Compagnie Maritime Belge (CMB) of its opening of a hydrogen fuel hub in Antwerp, the first of a planned network throughout northern Europe.
Details on the Statkraft plan remain scarce and Statkraft officials did not immediately respond to an enquiry.
"This contract is an important milestone in our efforts to establish Statkraft as a leading hydrogen producer in Norway and Sweden and fits well with the series of other initiatives we have on hydrogen for sea and land transport," Statkraft executive vice president Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal said in an announcement.
TradeWinds has reported previously on the contest sponsored by HeidelbergCement and Felleskjopet Agri to build a zero-emissions bulker for a long-term contract to carry aggregates and grain for their complementary trading patterns.
No shipbuilding contract has been placed yet, but Egil Ulvans expects to have its winning prototype on the water by 2024, not using fuel cells but the hydrogen combustion approach developed by Belgium's BeHydro, a joint venture of shipowner CMB and engine maker Anglo Belgian.
Sources involved in the Norwegian project said the two sponsoring charterers need at least the equivalent of two 5,000-dwt bulkers for their needs in moving aggregates from western Norway to the Oslo Fjord region and grain cargoes westward.
In addition, shortsea shipping sources in Norway said a number of Norwegian charterers waiting in the wings to offer employment to back construction of zero-emission sisterships, whether by Egil Ulvans or other owners.
