Case
Industrial symbiosis
Circular business models
Smart energy systems
GreenLab is a unique, green and circular industrial park. We generate sustainable energy, supply it to the businesses located here, and transform it into heat, electrofuels, and other green products.
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The green transition requires investment in emerging technologies, the facilitation of new collaborations, and the willingness to lean into uncertainty and complexity with no guarantee of a big return. However, it is essential for driving change in the green transition of industries and hard-to-abate sectors.
So, how can you succeed in transforming a green field into a unique, green, and circular industrial park that facilitates complex projects, accelerates emerging technologies, and simultaneously focuses on minimising industrial waste in just four years?
GreenLab – a unique, green and circular industrial park was established in 2019 and is a public-private partnership between Skive Municipality, Norlys, Spar Vest Fonden and Klimafonden. In 2021, the Danish government designated GreenLab as an official regulatory test zone granting GreenLab the opportunity to try new circular business models and direct connections between renewable energy and industry, including the companies at GreenLab and its power-to-X test site.
GreenLab will be the first site in Denmark to connect renewable energy to industry and power-to-X through a direct connection, and is internationally acknowledged as a frontrunner and a best practice example of an industrial symbiosis.
The test zone permit is one of a kind in Europe, providing valuable insights for all of Europe’s green transition – including clean energy storage, green fuels, agriculture, and industry. GreenLab acts as a facilitator for complex and risky projects, taking responsibility for collaboration agreements with several stakeholders, contact with state-owned companies, as well as steering committee meetings and support off-take arrangements.
GreenLab brings together energy producers and industrial energy consumers, and the co-location and integration of production and consumption increases the likelihood of reaching parity and reduces the need for transportation of energy, which is often very expensive.
GreenLab will be the first site in Denmark to connect renewable energy to industry and power-to-X through a direct connection, and is internationally acknowledged as a frontrunner and a best-practice example of an industrial symbiosis. The six active companies located in the industrial park focus on zero waste in their work with technologies like pyrolysis, electrolysis etc., to create marine protein, biochar, biogas, naphtha, green hydrogen, and other green products. GreenLab and its site partners have created local green growth, generated more than 100 jobs and attracted over 3 billion in investments, including an 80 MW renewable energy site located near the green industrial park.
In August 2023, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation published a report on guidelines for developing green industrial hydrogen clusters. GreenLab is a contributor and is highlighted by the UN as a best-practice example.
This case is a part of the white paper “Green hydrogen is Danish hydrogen”. Discover Denmark’s plans to produce green fuels and decarbonise global transport and energy-intensive industries.
Explore the white paper