French green hydrogen production specialist, Lhyfe, Finnish Flexens, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) have formed a partnership for the development and construction of an integrated energy island solution enabling gigawatt-scale offshore wind and green hydrogen production in Finland.
CIP, through Copenhagen Energy Islands, Lhyfe, and Flexens have decided to jointly launch the Åland Energy Island project that aims to develop large-scale hydrogen production on Åland integrated with gigawatt-scale offshore wind in Åland waters for use both on Åland and in the wider European region.
The exact configuration of the project is said to be developed in close coordination with the local government and other local stakeholders.
“The development of the Åland Energy Island project will provide a value increasing route to market for the regional offshore wind supporting the ambitions of Åland regarding local value and job creation as well as supporting the energy transition and energy independence of the wider region ,” said Thomas Dalsgaard , partner at CIP.
“ The strong complementary capabilities represented by the consortium partners enable the Åland Energy Island integrating offshore wind and hydrogen facilities to be structured and developed with the environmental, economic, and social interests of Åland in mind .”
Each company will offer complementary skills with CIP acting as one of the leading fund managers, Flexens having local expertise in developing hydrogen projects, and Lhyfe bringing onshore and offshore operations and design experience.
At the beginning of this year, Lhyfe acquired a 49 per cent stake in Flexens and said that the two companies will combine their expertise and commercial pipelines to accelerate current projects and identify new opportunities in Northern Europe.
According to Lhyfe, the two companies first started working together on joint projects in 2020.
Lhyfe is operating the world’s first offshore hydrogen production plant, named Sealhyfe, powered by a floating wind turbine. The platform began producing its first kilograms of hydrogen in June.