Ørsted, a leading U.S. clean energy developer, announced today it has been selected by the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations to begin award negotiations for up to $100 million in federal funding to construct a groundbreaking Power-to-X facility, called Star e-Methanol, along the Texas Gulf Coast.

Ørsted's project was selected as one of 33 projects across more than 20 states to demonstrate commercial-scale decarbonization solutions needed to move energy-intensive industries toward net-zero. It was one of a subset chosen for funding that, according to the DOE's Funding Opportunity Announcement, represents a "world-leading, first-or early-of-a-kind, full facility build resulting in significant emissions reductions up to net-zero operations."

"The production of e-methanol will be critical to achieving rapid decarbonization for the most hard-to-electrify sectors, and we are thrilled to have the U.S. Department of Energy's support to develop and scale this new industry," said Melissa Peterson, Head of Onshore and P2X Americas at Ørsted. "Beyond decarbonization, Ørsted's investments in Texas and in the e-fuels industry will create new American jobs and deliver economic value and benefits to local communities."

The Star e-Methanol project consists of multiple components to reach a net-neutral carbon solution. This includes building new onshore wind and solar projects in Texas to power the electrolysis of green hydrogen, capturing biogenic carbon from an industrial facility, and synthesizing the captured biogenic carbon with green hydrogen to create e-methanol. The resulting e-methanol will reduce CO2 emissions by more than 90 percent compared to conventional marine fuel.