H2APEX Group SCA announced that Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) – one of the world’s leading investment companies in energy infrastructure investments – has acquired a majority stake of 70% in the first phase of H2APEX’s IPCEI-funded H₂ project in Lubmin through its Energy Transition Fund (CI ETF I) as a strategic investor. The aim of the contractual agreement is to secure pre-financing of the European Union (EU) IPCEI funding of €167 MM and to raise the additional financial resources required.

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners will invest €15 MM in the project phase until the final investment decision is made. The parties to the agreement aim to jointly finance the total project volume of several hundred million euros by the time of commissioning, provided this is efficiently feasible and sustainable in the long term. Construction of the funded project is expected to be completed in 2028. The plan is to produce up to 10,000 tpy of H₂, which corresponds to a capacity of 100 MW in the first expansion stage. The H₂ off-take for the first expansion stage has already been secured in a preliminary agreement.

H2APEX has already secured important assets in advance at the Lubmin site, which is considered one of the most promising locations for H₂ production in the EU due to its proximity to the Baltic Sea. In addition to access to offshore wind farms and thus sustainably generated energy, there is also the possibility of feeding into the planned H₂ transmission network. In future, the green H₂ produced will be transported from northern to southern Germany via the associated Flow pipeline, which is scheduled to go into operation shortly. The feed-in also creates the opportunity to achieve and interconnect further IPCEI-funded projects along the H₂ value chain. This will make a significant contribution to strengthening the European H₂ economy.

Peter Rößner, CEO of H2APEX said, “The strategic partnership with CIP is a milestone both for the development of our own H₂ production capacities and for the entire H2APEX Group. We are delighted to have brought one of the world’s most financially strong infrastructure funds to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, bringing us a big step closer to the start of construction of our projects in Lubmin. We see this partnership as the perfect symbiosis of a financial investor with in-depth technology and industry expertise and a long-term investment horizon – as is customary for infrastructure investments – and H2APEX as a project developer and portfolio manager covering the entire H₂ value chain. We are now continuing to work intensively on the further development of our projects so that construction can begin next year.”

Felix Pahl, Partner at CIP said, “This project is making an important contribution to the ramp-up of the H₂ economy in Germany. Together with H2APEX, we are developing a project in Lubmin with excellent infrastructure connections and confirmed IPCEI funding. We continue to see great potential in green H₂ and are committed to long-term investments in scalable, renewable infrastructure. We look forward to working closely with H2APEX and all other partners in the project.”

Until the next phase of construction, which is scheduled for 2026, the focus will be on reserving and ordering components and continuing the approval process. In the long term, H2APEX plans to achieve a total capacity of more than 1,000 MW in Lubmin.