Samsung E&A buys Norwegian Nel stake for hydrogen business push

South Korea’s Samsung E&A Co. has purchased a stake in Norway’s hydrogen technology company Nel ASA at 47.6 billion won ($32.8 million) to advance into the green hydrogen plant industry.

Samsung E&A, formerly Samsung Engineering Co., said on Wednesday it bought a 9.1% stake in Nel while signing a strategic partnership with the Norwegian company.

Nel separately said on Tuesday it will issue 167.1 million shares to Samsung E&A, making the South Korean company its largest single shareholder.

Nel also said they inked an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) agreement that allows Samsung E&A to offer its customers complete hydrogen plants of its own design using Nel’s electrolyzers.

Electrolyzers, which use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, are a critical technology for producing low-emissions hydrogen from renewable or nuclear electricity.

“The technology investment and expanded cooperation will allow us to proactively secure technologies in the energy transition sectors such as hydrogen and carbon neutrality,” a Samsung E&A official said in a statement.

“We aim to create a virtuous cycle of business by attracting not only technology orders but also high-value EPC orders.”

ELECTROLYZERS

Nel provides solutions for the production, storage and distribution of hydrogen from renewable energy sources.

The company, which launched the world's first electrolyzer, offers various water electrolysis for the production of green hydrogen.

Green hydrogen production results in significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions than the production of grey hydrogen, which is derived from fossil fuels without carbon capture.

Samsung E&A plans to provide hydrogen plant technologies to hydrogen project operators through the partnership.

The unit of South Korea’s top conglomerate Samsung Group aims to expand the business into installing and operating electrolyzers.

The green hydrogen production through electrolyzers is expected to allow Samsung E&A to make inroads into other sectors such as green ammonia, green methanol and e-fuel.

Write to Sang Hoon Sung at uphoon@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.