This week’s Power-to-X news stretched from the Sahara to a toy factory. Five governments took a step towards a hydrogen pipeline from Algeria to Germany, India and Germany agreed a framework for a joint H2Global tender, and two large eSAF projects moved forward in Denmark and China. On the user side, LEGO began making some of its bricks from e-methanol. There was also a reminder that big first-of-a-kind plants are expensive: Stegra needs more money for its hydrogen-based steel plant. Here is our review of the week of 28 September to 5 October.

Algiers declaration: five countries back the Southern Hydrogen Corridor

On 1 October, the energy ministers of Algeria, Tunisia, Italy, Austria and Germany met in Algiers for the second ministerial meeting on the Southern Hydrogen Corridor (SoutH2) and signed the Algiers Ministerial Declaration. It sets up a technical secretariat supported by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). The planned corridor of roughly 3,000 km would carry up to four million tonnes of renewable hydrogen a year from Algeria via Tunisia to Italy, Austria and Germany, about 10% of the EU’s projected hydrogen demand in 2040. The political step is real, but the hard questions remain commercial: hydrogen prices, long-term offtake contracts, renewable capacity and water for electrolysis in a dry country. For Switzerland, which sits next to the corridor’s end points, it is a project worth following closely. (Source: Eurasia Review, 3 October)

India and Germany prepare a joint H2Global tender for RFNBOs

The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and Hintco, the intermediary that runs the German H2Global auctions, have agreed the key terms of a framework agreement for a possible bilateral Indo-German H2Global tender for renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBOs). It builds on a memorandum of understanding signed in November 2024. Both sides will now prepare the tender in consultation with their governments; it still needs government approval. If it goes ahead, it would be one of the first H2Global tenders co-designed with a producing country, linking Indian green hydrogen derivatives directly to European demand. (Source: Indian Masterminds, 3 October)

Plug Power to supply 280 MW of electrolysers for Arcadia eFuels’ eSAF plant in Denmark

Plug Power has signed a 280 MW electrolyser supply agreement with Arcadia eFuels for Project Endor at the Port of Vordingborg on Denmark’s south coast. The plant will run on renewable grid power and produce roughly 110 tonnes of hydrogen a day, which Arcadia will combine with captured CO2 to make drop-in jet fuel. The deal also includes a cooperation agreement for Arcadia’s future projects. Together with the long-term eSAF offtake Arcadia recently agreed with Uniper, the project now has a technology supplier and a buyer; the final investment decision is still pending. (Source: pv magazine, 2 October)

China: Dongde Energy starts a $1.6 billion eSAF project in Xinjiang

Dongde Energy has begun implementing a $1.6 billion project in Yiwu county, Xinjiang, to produce 100,000 tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel a year from green hydrogen and captured CO2. The project includes 2 GW of wind power, a green hydrogen plant producing 50,000 tonnes a year and the capture of 400,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. Dongde calls it China’s first and largest SAF demonstration project of its kind; a 10,000-tonne plant in Inner Mongolia began commissioning in September. China is moving fast from pilots to industrial scale in eSAF. (Source: Hydrocarbon Processing, 1 October)

LEGO starts making bricks with e-methanol

The LEGO Group now uses e-methanol to make more than 90 rigid elements, including cross axles, connectors, steering wheels and minifigure hands. The e-methanol is made with renewable hydrogen and CO2 captured from a biogas plant. It is fed into a continuous production loop together with fossil feedstock, a mass-balance approach that lets LEGO scale up the renewable share gradually. The step follows more than five years of partnership and testing. It shows a demand segment for Power-to-X that often gets overlooked: chemicals and plastics, where carbon has to stay in the product. (Source: Hydrocarbon Processing, 2 October)

Right on the Swiss border: second electrolyser inaugurated in Wyhlen

On 1 October, EnBW and naturenergie inaugurated a new 5 MW PEM electrolyser at the Wyhlen run-of-river hydropower plant in Grenzach-Wyhlen, just across the Rhine from Basel. It complements the existing 1 MW alkaline unit and can ramp up and down quickly to follow the power supply. New storage raises capacity to about 5 tonnes of hydrogen, and seven filling stations load tube trailers. The hydrogen is meant for industrial and mobility customers in the border region of Germany, Switzerland and France. Total costs are around €40 million, of which €15 million came from the German government; commercial operation is planned for early 2027. (Source: Windkraft-Journal, 4 October)

Stegra needs more money for its hydrogen-based steel plant

Swedish green steel company Stegra said on 30 September that completing its plant in Boden will cost “significantly higher” than estimated in June, mainly due to ramp-up costs after work was scaled back earlier this year, and inflation. Swedish media report a gap of at least SEK 10 billion (around €880 million). The largest shareholders have signalled willingness to help, and former Saab CEO Håkan Buskhe will take over as CEO. Stegra is the flagship of hydrogen-based industrial decarbonisation in Europe; its difficulties show how much first-of-a-kind risk still sits with pioneers. (Source: Tech.eu, 30 September)

Briefly noted

  • Uniper’s NorthStarH2 e-methanol project moves to FEED. AFRY will carry out front-end engineering design for the planned 115,000 t/year e-methanol plant in Östersund, Sweden, using biogenic CO2 from Jämtkraft’s CHP plant. FID is planned for 2028, commissioning for 2031. (Hydrocarbon Processing, 1 October)
  • Spain speeds up its hydrogen backbone. The government is fast-tracking authorisation of the first three sections of Enagás’ renewable hydrogen network and has awarded €303.75 million to the 300 MW Onuba, €245 million to the 500 MW Catalina and €160 million to the 100 MW Petronor electrolyser projects. (pv magazine, 2 October)
  • Germany opens a third call for international hydrogen projects. German companies can receive up to €30 million per project for 2027–30; projects must be located outside the European Economic Area and Switzerland. Deadline: 17 December 2026. (pv magazine, 2 October)
  • Italy: SIAD commissions a solar-powered 2 MW electrolyser. The PEM unit at the IGAT plant near Caserta runs on 2.37 MW of PV and a 1 MW battery and compresses hydrogen to 500 bar for industrial customers. Investment: more than €12 million, including €8 million from Italy’s recovery plan. (pv magazine, 2 October)
  • India: Numaligarh Refinery tenders equipment for its green hydrogen plant. NRL has invited bids for a cooling water system for its 2.4 kt/year green hydrogen unit in Assam. (SolarQuarter, 5 October)

What it means for Power-to-X

This week’s news shows the market organising itself across borders. Europe is building import routes (SoutH2), co-designing tenders with exporting countries (India–H2Global) and funding projects abroad. Meanwhile, China is starting eSAF projects at a scale Europe has not yet committed to. The Stegra news is the counterweight: first-of-a-kind plants still carry large cost risks. For Switzerland, two details stand out. Germany’s funding call for international hydrogen projects explicitly excludes Switzerland, so Swiss sites cannot count on German money. And yet, the plant in Wyhlen shows that the Swiss market is already part of a cross-border hydrogen supply. Without its own instruments, Switzerland risks being a customer of the hydrogen economy, but not a place where it is built.

🤖 AI transparency: This text and its visual were created using AI, reviewed and approved by a human.

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