A new consortium has unveiled ambitious plans to build Europe’s largest green hydrogen production ‘mega-facility’, which would source offshore wind power to produce zero emission hydrogen at a new site on the Dutch coast.
The Netherlands arm of oil giant Shell, gas infrastructure specialist Gasunie, and Groningen Seaports launched the NortH2 project, confirming plans to harness up to 10 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind power by 2040so as to produce 800,000 tonnes a year of green hydrogen.
British environmental news website BusinessGreen reports the proposed mega-hydrogen facility in Eemshaven would have the potential to save seven megatons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions a year, the companies said.
The project has kicked off with a feasibility study that the consortium expects to conclude by the end of this year.
BusinessGreen reports the companies signalled that they were confident the Province of Groningen could become the “European centre of green hydrogen production and a European example as the first European Hydrogen Valley”.
They added that investments in the NortH2 project could create thousands of jobs in the northern Netherlands.
Advocates of green hydrogen argue that it could play a critical role in a zero-emission energy system, providing a means of storing energy provided by variable renewable energy outputs by converting it into a gas that could then be used for multiple applications, including industrial processes, transport fuels, and heating systems.
However, conventional hydrogen production typically relies on gas and results in carbon emissions, leading to growing interest in how renewable power could be used to produce hydrogen through electrolysis without any emissions.
Marjan van Loon, president-director of Shell Nederland, said the project puts the Netherlands at “the forefront of hydrogen globally”.
“This project offers opportunities throughout the entire hydrogen chain,” she added.
“In addition, it fits well with our New Energies aspirations and our ambitions to find new ways to reduce CO2 emissions and deliver more and cleaner energy, at home, on the go and at work.”
However, she argued that in order to realise the project, the companies would “need several new partners”.
“Together we will have to pioneer and innovate to bring together all the available knowledge and skills that are required,” she added.
“The energy transition calls for guts, boldness, and action.”
BusinessGreen reports specifically, the project would require the construction of major new offshore wind farms, the development of a new electrolysers, potentially including some offshore, and the establishment of “a smart transport network” in the Netherlands and Northwest Europe capable of delivering the 800,000 tonnes of green hydrogen to industrial users and potentially consumers.
However, Han Fennema, CEO Gasunie, argued the project was perfectly located to have a transformative impact.
“The Netherlands has a leading position in the shift to a hydrogen economy,” he said.
“We have the North Sea for the production of wind, the ports as logistical hubs, and the industrial clusters that want to make the switch to green molecules and a suitable transport network If we want to realise our climate ambitions, we must have large-scale infrastructure in good time.”
The announcement comes in the same week as Shell was also confirmed as a partner, alongside a number of oil majors, in the Teesside Net Zero project to develop a new carbon capture, utilisation and storage cluster.
It also follows an announcement last month that the British government has assigned £70 million of funding to support the development of three green hydrogen production projects.
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One Response
WHO IS THIS NOT BEING DONE IN AUSTRALIA . IS IT BECAUSE OF FOSSIL FUEL CORRUPTION?
AUSTRALIA WITH VAST AREAS FOR SOLAR AND WIND HYDROGEN PRODUCTION THAT COULD BE USED TO MAKE THE WHOLE WORLD’S ENERGY.