AUSTRALIAN hydrogen company Provaris has appointed a strategic advisor to support the company’s team in Norway.

The company’s Norway office is working on opportunities for hydrogen storage and transportation in Norway and across Europe.

Herman Hildan will take the strategic advisor role. Provaris said he has significant expertise in shipping, advisory and capital markets.

Provaris managing director and CEO Martin Carolan said Mr Hildan will work with the company’s CTO Per Road to deepen existing and new partnerships and leverage his network of corporate, shipping and financial market contacts across Europe and North America.

“Provaris is also reviewing future requirements for capital aligned to its activities in Europe, this includes capital market alternatives and the increasing number of government funding initiatives across the EU,” Mr Carolan said.

Mr Hildan said: “I am thankful for the opportunity to assist Provaris in their important work of developing the hydrogen value chain. It seems likely that the compressed H2 carrier can be a first mover for European markets due to its cost and complexity advantage over the liquified and ammonia-based solution, as the scoping study showed last year.

“Furthermore, close to 50% of the EU hydropower reservoir capacity is in Norway, which creates a unique ability to support the REPowerEU ambition of 10 million tonnes per annum H2 production and 10 million tonnes per annum of H2 import by 2030.”