Ørsted to develop big Power-to-X project in US to supply e-methanol to Maersk

Danish clean energy group Ørsted A/S (CPH:ORSTED) will develop a 675-MW Power-to-X facility on the US Gulf Coast as part of a green fuels agreement with Danish shipping company AP Moller-Maersk A/S (CPH:MAERSK-A; CPH:MAERSK-B).

The facility will be powered by about 1.2 GW of new onshore wind and solar parks and will produce some 300,000 tonnes of e-methanol per year. Maersk will offtake the e-methanol to fuel its newly ordered fleet of 12 methanol-powered vessels.

The letter of intent between Ørsted and Maersk is part of a number of partnerships that the container logistics company announced today to source at least 730,000 tonnes of green methanol annually by end-2025.

Ørsted said the agreement marks its entry into the US Power-to-X market.

“Partnerships with large offtakers of green fuels, like Maersk, is an important part of Ørsted’s strategic journey, as we broaden our Power-to-X footprint across the world to become a global leader in renewable hydrogen and green fuels,” said Ørsted’s deputy chief executive and chief commercial officer Martin Neubert.

The Power-to-X project is intended to be commissioned in the second half of 2025, with final investment decision possible in late 2023. This makes it "by far the most ambitious project globally producing e-methanol at scale," Ørsted said. The biogenic carbon required for the e-methanol production will come from carbon capture at one or more large point sources, according to the announcement.

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