Posco, a South Korean company and Ørsted, a Danish power company, will collaborate to produce hydrogen from electricity generated by wind energy. The two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding to evaluate the feasibility of producing green hydrogen in Incheon, South Korea, where Ørsted plans to build a wind power plant.
In November 2020, Orsted announced that it will build a 1.6 GE offshore wind project off the coast of Incheon, which will involve an investment of about $7 billion. The project is supposed to begin operation in 2027. The two companies have collaborated before on projects in the United Kingdom, where Posco was a supplier of steel to the power company. POSCO’s steel business has supplied over 100,000 tons of steel for Ørsted’s Hornsea 1 and three other offshore wind farms. If the project comes through, Orsted will build production facilities for green hydrogen in Incheon while Posco supplies steel for the project. Posco will also help in producing and storing the produced hydrogen.
Ørsted recently started construction of its first demonstration level green hydrogen project called H2RES in Denmark and is involved in nine renewable hydrogen projects in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
Korea has set an ambitious target of installing 12 GW offshore wind capacity by 2030. In September 2020, Korean President Moon Jae-in further announced the Green New Deal which targets net zero emissions by 2050.
