en.Wedoany.com Reported - A green hydrogen project in northern Germany, aimed at installing 500MW of electrolyzer capacity by 2030, has been canceled for the second time, with partners reportedly citing a lack of planning certainty as the main reason.

The HyScale 100 project in Schleswig-Holstein had been expected to receive nearly €900 million in federal and state funding, with future potential to expand capacity to 2.1GW to drive decarbonization in the petrochemical and cement industries.

The project was developed by a consortium comprising Heide Refinery, Danish energy company Ørsted, Swiss building materials firm Holcim, and Hynamics, the hydrogen-focused subsidiary of French utility EDF. Despite having secured €194 million in state funding in April 2022, the consortium ultimately decided to terminate the project.

Additionally, the project had been recognized as a Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI). The facility was also slated to receive EU funding, which would have formed part of the aforementioned €900 million investment.

A spokesperson for Schleswig-Holstein's Ministry of Energy Transition stated that the project had not incurred any actual expenditure for the state government. According to German news outlet NDR, the relevant funds were never actually disbursed.

Had the project been implemented, its plan was to combine green hydrogen with carbon dioxide captured from a nearby cement plant to produce e-methanol, which would then be supplied to an olefins plant located at the project site.

The HyScale project was a redesign built on the earlier Westküste 100 project by Heide Refinery, Ørsted, and Hynamics. The Westküste 100 project had been canceled in 2023.

At that time, the three companies cited high costs as the reason for the cancellation, despite the project having previously received €30 million in funding from Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) in 2020.

Policy changes and high costs continue to plague Europe's hydrogen industry. For large-scale integrated facilities that require substantial capital investment while involving multiple new technologies, policy and planning uncertainties are persistently hindering project development.

In April this year, Swedish company Stegra secured a $1.4 billion rescue financing package to complete its 700MW green steel plant in Boden, after the company had exhausted its funds.

Just days before that news, Klesch Group, the owner of Heide Refinery, completed the acquisition of BP's Gelsenkirchen refinery for an undisclosed amount.

Klesch stated that the deal was a "significant milestone" in its "continued expansion" of its refining portfolio.

In October 2024, Danish wind developer Ørsted also announced it would exit two green hydrogen projects, pivoting its strategy to reduce exposure to the green fuels sector. This came just months after the company had canceled its FlagshipOne project in Sweden—an e-fuel plant with an annual capacity of 55,000 tonnes.