Norway scales up hydrogen production and infrastructure: six major plants in the pipeline

Norway is beginning to structurally connect hydrogen production with refuelling infrastructure. The most visible example sits at Hellesylt, on the Geiranger Fjord. There, in September 2024, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre inaugurated Norwegian Hydrogen's Hellesylt Hydrogen Hub, a facility set to produce up to roughly 500 tonnes of green hydrogen per year according to its operator. Next to the plant stands the first refuelling station of Vireon, a Norwegian subsidiary of Norwegian Hydrogen focused on heavy-duty transport. That makes Hellesylt one of the first sites in Norway where local production and public refuelling infrastructure are directly linked.

Comparable initiatives

Similar pairings of production and offtake are emerging elsewhere. In Trondheim, food distributor ASKO has built its own hydrogen infrastructure for its truck fleet. In northern Berlevåg, the municipality and Varanger KraftHydrogen are developing a production and distribution project. The approach is consistent: a local production source as anchor, with offtakers in transport, industry or maritime activity around it.

Six final investment decisions

Over the past year, final investment decisions have been taken for six Norwegian hydrogen production sites. They include GreenH (Slagentangen, Kristiansund and Bodø), Hydrogen Solutions (Egersund and Florø) and Norwegian Hydrogen (Rjukan). In Kristiansand, Greenstat and Française de l'Energie are jointly developing a production site, while Å Energi is working on a comparable project in Kongsberg. For the maritime sector — a key offtaker in nearly all of these plans — GreenH (Sola, Rogaland) and Gen2 Energy (Mosjøen, Nordland) were awarded funding from the third European Hydrogen Bank auction in May 2026: roughly 124 million euros in total, split evenly between the two projects. Operations are scheduled to start in 2031. Earlier rounds of the EU Innovation Fund had already awarded grants to GreenH (Hammerfest), Gen2 Energy (Mosjøen) and Norwegian Hydrogen (Rjukan).

Role of the EU and Enova

Norway's scale-up rests on a combination of European and Norwegian instruments. The EU finances through the Innovation Fund and the Hydrogen Bank; the Norwegian agency Enova supports applications and provides additional funding to production and refuelling projects. This dual framework is a key reason so many projects are reaching final investment decisions at the same time.

Vireon's perspective

In its LinkedIn post, Vireon argues that the logical next step is to build refuelling infrastructure at or near every major production site, so that — alongside maritime offtake — heavy road transport, construction equipment and industrial applications can also be served. According to the company, multiple offtakers strengthen utilisation, improve project economics and accelerate emission reductions across sectors. This is explicitly the view of a refuelling operator; Norwegian policymakers and funding bodies currently focus primarily on maritime use.

What this means

For the wider European hydrogen landscape, the Norwegian movement is interesting because production, distribution and end-use appear to be developing in parallel. For hydrogen drivers and transport operators elsewhere in Europe, it is mainly an example of what a coordinated approach — production at the source, refuelling infrastructure nearby, a clear anchor offtaker — can deliver.

Sources:

- Vireon LinkedIn post (original)

- Norwegian Hydrogen: opening of Hellesylt Hydrogen Hub (Sept 2024)

- Regjeringen.no: speech by PM Støre at Hellesylt

- Vireon.com: first refuelling station at Hellesylt

- Enova / Norsk Hydrogenforum: EU Innovation Fund awards Norway

- Gen2 Energy and GreenH: press releases on EU Hydrogen Bank auction (May 2026)