29 November 2024
Offshore wind-to-hydrogen project in the Netherlands
Joint Development Agreement will use offshore wind-to-hydrogen production in the Dutch sector of the North Sea.
Neptune Energy and RWE have signed a Joint Development Agreement to develop a green hydrogen project. It will use offshore wind energy for the production of hydrogen (wind-to-hydrogen) in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. Additionally, they will utilize an existing pipeline to transport the hydrogen to land.
Concept
The project, namely H2opZee is supported by the Dutch government as an initiative of TKI Wind op Zee. Note that, it consists of two phases.
In the first phase, the newly established consortium will perform a feasibility study. Hence, it will set up an accessible knowledge platform, with an objective to start the roll-out of hydrogen at sea in the Netherlands.
Moreover, the second phase includes the implementation of the project, with the tender methodology not defined yet.
The companies plan to start the feasibility study in the second quarter of this year. In this regard, to have the project up and running before 2030.
H2opZee is a demonstration project which aims to build 300-500 MW electrolyzer capacity in the North Sea. Thus, produce green hydrogen using offshore wind and transport the hydrogen to land through an existing pipeline.
The pipeline has a capacity of 10-12 GW, so it is already suitable for further roll-out of green hydrogen production at the gigawatt-scale in the North Sea, according to the consortium.
Views on the project
“The energy transition can be faster, cheaper and cleaner if we integrate existing gas infrastructure into new systems…This infrastructure is technically suitable, no new pipeline at sea is needed and no new landfall is required through the coastal area… lessons learned from the PosHYdon pilot project, which kicked off last year, will apply to H2opZee”.
Lex de Groot, Neptune Energy’s Managing Director in the Netherlands
“Hydrogen was a gamechanger in the decarbonization of energy-intensive sectors and that the H2opZee project was a world-first of this kind and scale. Learnings from the H2opZee demonstration project will help in ramping up the hydrogen economy in the Netherlands as it presents an important step towards the roll-out of green hydrogen production offshore at large scale”
Sven Utermöhlen, CEO Offshore Wind at RWE Renewables, said
Source: Neptune Energy
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