Bloomberg Businessweek / SEPTEMBER 2, 2019
THE
ELEMENTS
13It maynotlooklikeit, but
thebuildingunderconstruc-
tion①neartheNorwegian
portofBerlevag,is aboutto
becomepartoftheworld’s
mostefficientwindfarm.By
earlynextyear,it willhouse
a devicecalledanelectro-
lyzer,which,poweredbythat
Norsewind,willproduce
hydrogenfuelfora grow-
ingarmyofforklifts,cars,
trucks,andbuses.A hydro-
genstation②③in theOslo
suburbofHovikwillsoonbe
readytofillthemup.
Thehydrogen-battery
revolution has been 10 years
away for decades now. But
Norway, Europe’s No. 1 in
electric vehicles, is on track
to become a leading adopter
of the universe’s most abun-
dant element. Proponents
say it will become an essen-
tial component of a more
environmentally friendly
future as a growing sup-
ply of renewably generated
hydrogen makes the fuel
more competitive.
One longtime knock onhydrogen fuel has been
that fossil fuels are often
required to generate it. Not
so at the Berlevag wind
farm, or in the Norwegian
city of Trondheim, where a
technician ④ employed by
Swedish vehicle manufac-
turer Scania AB is working
with hydrogen electrolyzers
and tanks that will be fueled
by solar panels. This hydro-
gen setup will power a fleet
of trucks and forklifts being
tested for ASKO, a local gro-
cery wholesaler.
For now, though, the
dirtier forms of hydrogen
production remain less
than half as expensive as
renewable ones. That’s a
headache for Norway’s
government, which plans
tohaltsalesoffossil-fuel-
powered cars by 2025 and
expects to have as many
as 500,000 hydrogen cars
on the road in the coun-
try a few years later. At the
very least, that would mean
a lot more electrolyzers in
places like Berlevag.234