According to the preliminary plan, the whole project planned in Laanila industrial area, would include an electrolysis plant with a capacity of up to 100 MW, a carbon capture plant, a hydrogen and carbon dioxide storage, and a further processing plant whose final product could be methane or methanol, for example.

This will be Oulu Energia’s first hydrogen project and significant even on the scale of Europe. The project will increase the vitality of the Oulu region and the development opportunities for industry as well as create new businesses and jobs.

The project will contribute to the transition towards cleaner energy production

The products created by the hydrogen plant could be used to replace fossil fuels in road, maritime and air transport. According to the preliminary estimate, approximately 200–400 gigawatt hours (GWh) of heat energy per year would be created as a by-product, which could be transferred to the district heating network, while the oxygen could be recovered for industrial use.

“The heat energy gained would correspond to approximately 10–30 per cent of Oulu’s annual district heating demand. This would enable us to produce heat in an environmentally friendly manner and improve the competitiveness of district heating,” says Kimmo Alatulkkila, development director at Oulun Energia.

In addition, the project aims to investigate the possibilities of recovering the biogenic flue gases from local industry and power plants in the further processing of hydrogen.

The project development phase begins in the competent hands of P2X Solutions

The project development phase now being launched is led by P2X Solutions Ltd, a Finnish pioneer in green hydrogen and Power-to-X technology. The company is currently constructing Finland’s first industrial-scale green hydrogen and synthetic methane production plant in Harjavalta in western Finland.

“Oulun Energia is a pioneer in sustainable energy production in northern Finland. It is great to be able to advance a joint project that shows that green hydrogen can also be a solution for cutting emissions from heat production. When completed, the capacity of the Oulu hydrogen plant would be up to 100 megawatts, which makes it very significant also on the scale of Finland. For P2X Solutions, the project would mean a significant scaling up of operations from our facilities in Harjavalta and Joensuu,” says Herkko Plit, CEO of P2X Solutions.

In the project development phase, the feasibility of the plant and location options are examined, and an impact assessment is carried out. The investment decision is estimated to be made in autumn 2025, and the plant could be ready by 2028 at the earliest.

Arto Sutinen, CEO of Oulun Energia, and Herkko Plit, CEO of P2X Solution, announced the plans of building a hydrogen plant in Oulu at the Northern Power business event held on February 14, 2024. Picture: Henri Luoma Photography