How will the price of HVO develop?
Mats Hultman: It is more expensive to produce HVO than fossil diesel. But it's also not correct to compare HVO with fossil diesel, because HVO can do more. With HVO, you can make energy and mobility possible in an almost climate-neutral way. And if you compare HVO with hydrogen or other e-fuels, HVO is a very cost efficient way to decarbonize, where you can continue with your existing engines and infrastructure.
What role does price play for your customers?
Michael Stipa: It plays a role, of course. Many of our customers are willing to make their contribution to sustainability and they would pay more for HVO than for fossil diesel. But there are of course limits to this "more. The price premium must be within a range that our customers can tolerate, and for that we need suitable framework conditions.
But there are cases where you can even save money with HVO. In data centers, for example, our power generators are on standby for emergencies. They always step in when the public power grid fails. How often this happens and how long the gensets then have to run cannot, of course, be planned. That's why our customers always have to stockpile a lot of diesel. And now comes the big advantage of HVO: It can be stored for far longer than fossil diesel. Our partners at Neste have found that HVO can have a much longer shelf life than conventional diesel, as conventional diesel often contains FAME or biodiesel, which contributes to a much shorter shelf life. So data center operators have to replace HVO less often. Of course, this saves them a lot of money - which makes up for the extra HVO price after a certain time.
Rolls-Royce's Power Systems business unit has been cooperating with Neste since 2022. What exactly does this cooperation entail?
Michael Stipa: It benefits us and, above all, our customers very much. We want to work together to ensure that combustion engines run more sustainably on HVO. This cooperation brings together the world's largest producer of HVO fuel and one of the most experienced manufacturers of internal combustion engines. Together, we want to help HVO fuel achieve its major breakthrough and make the world a greener place. Our customers will also benefit from this in very practical terms, because we can often advise them together and actively support them in the switch to HVO.
For many, HVO is the bridge fuel until electricity-based fuels are economically and widely available. How long do you plan to continue using HVO?
Mats Hultman: For us, HVO is by no means a bridge fuel. No fuel, be it HVO, hydrogen or any other electricity-based fuel, will be able to meet the demands of all industries and all usage. There will always be a need for different solutions that can complement each other. That's why we're also investigating new ways to produce renewable fuel – there's still a lot of potential there to produce much larger quantities.
