Nantes Saint-Nazaire Port picks Lhyfe to develop green hydrogen production site

French hydrogen producer Lhyfe has won the call for proposals launched at the end of 2022 by Nantes Saint-Nazaire Port to develop a green hydrogen industrial production and distribution site in Montoir-de-Bretagne (Loire-Atlantique).

The call for proposals, concerning the provision of land located at the port’s industrial and logistics ecosystem in Montoir-de-Bretagne for industrial renewable hydrogen production, was launched on November 21, 2022.

As the winner of this call, Lhyfe plans to build an industrial unit with a production capacity of up to 85 tonnes per day of green and renewable hydrogen (installed electrolysis capacity of 210 MW) located north of the bulk port terminal. This site should be operational by 2028.

This project is expected to contribute to the industrial port complex and maritime transport decarbonization. It is also in line with the action program for the development of a “Low Carbon Industrial Zone” (ZIBaC), supported by the Association des Industriels Loire Estuaire (AILE), Saint-Nazaire Agglomération, the Estuaire and Sillon areas, and the Pays de la Loire Region.

The project’s implementation is subject to the granting of operating authorizations and construction permits, as well as to financial investment decisions, Lhyfe said.

In September 2022, the French company inaugurated the world’s first offshore renewable green hydrogen production pilot in Saint-Nazaire, France. The platform, dubbed Sealhyfe, underwent a series of trials and has now been towed back to the Quai des Frégates after achieving all objectives set at the time of its launch.