Bill Gates invests in Europe's largest green hydrogen methanol project

Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, the climate fund founded by billionaire Bill Gates, on Friday joined the European Union in providing a major cash boost to Sweden's Orsted's flagship green methanol project.

Orsted made a final investment decision (FID) on FlagshipONE in December and broke ground in May, choosing to use its own balance sheet to build the plant rather than finance the project through debt.

Breakthrough energy Catalyst, however, has now bought a 15 percent stake in the facility, while the European Investment Bank has made a "quasi-equity" investment, or loan, Its repayment terms set interest rates based on performance rather than during the payback period. FlagshipONE will also receive funding from Horizon Europe.

However, the total amount Orsted received from the three sources has not been disclosed, although the European Commission said in a separate announcement that it had provided FlagshipONE and an energy storage project in Italy with a total of 240 million euros in grants, equity and risk debt.

Rodi Guidero, executive director of Breakthrough Energy, said, "This collaboration will help advance FlagshipONE from pre-development, beginning construction, to eventual operation."

"Together, we are providing a blueprint to accelerate the roll-out of the first solutions to help Europe meet its decarbonisation targets," he added.

However, a spokesperson for Orsted told the media that "this partnership has no material impact on construction".

The FlagshipONE project, located on the site of a biomass cogeneration power plant in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden, plans to produce 55,000 tonnes of methanol per year starting in 2025, with the goal of providing a zero-emission fuel for ships.

The plant will use a 70MW electrolyser supplied by Danish company Topsoe to produce the hydrogen feedstock, while the bioCO2 will come from the power plant.

FlagshipONE will also draw water and steam from the co-located thermal power plant, while transferring waste heat from the electronic methanol production process back to the district heating network.

Orsted is also developing a larger 300,000-tonne-a-year green methanol project on the U.S. Gulf Coast as part of the HyVelocity Center, which received a grant of up to $1.2 billion from the Regional Clean Hydrogen Center Program.

However, the Danish developer has also withdrawn some projects in Europe.