Is the Proposal of the First Major Green Hydrogen Facility in the Netherlands a Beneficial Concept?

• Charlotte Klein

  editor Economics

There will be a large green hydrogen factory at sea in the Netherlands for the first time. That factory will be located north of the Wadden Islands, next to a wind farm, and must be ready for use in 2031. Minister Jetten for Climate and Energy has opted for this in the fight against climate change: no CO2 is released during the production of green hydrogen.

It was previously announced that two wind farms would be built in the Wadden area. One will continue to provide electricity, the other will generate electricity for the production of hydrogen.

“With this plan, we are a global leader,” says Jetten. How do experts view this move towards a possible hydrogen economy?

Plans for a hydrogen factory at sea had been on the drawing board in The Hague for some time, and they are now being accelerated. The minister does this because he believes it is clearer that hydrogen is necessary for the sustainability of industry and heavy transport, among other things. In addition, according to Jetten, the energy crisis has demonstrated the need for self-sufficiency.

Jetten says he is happy with the support of local Groningen administrators – the factory will be located in their province. According to experts, the plan is also a helping hand for the province of Groningen: sustainability will be accelerated, so that our dependence on gas will decrease.

According to René Kleijn, professor of future-proof raw material supply at Leiden University, there are other factors at play: “Europe has lost the battle for batteries and solar panels to China, Korea and Japan. We can still become a leader with hydrogen.”

Kleijn sees many advantages of green hydrogen, especially at times when a lot of wind and solar energy is produced: “When there is a lot of sun and wind in the future, we cannot always use everything, so there will be periods when electricity is available for free. it.”

Kleijn thinks that placing the factory next to a wind farm is a good idea. This is because there are far fewer electricity cables to the mainland, because the electricity is led to the factory next door. In addition, part of the old pipelines of the gas infrastructure can be used to transport the hydrogen.

Benjamin Sprecher of TU Delft sees benefits for the balance on the electricity network. “In theory you can also store energy with batteries, but on a large scale this is easier to achieve with hydrogen.”

Although green hydrogen can play an important role in sustainability, especially for industry – Tata Steel wants to start producing steel with green hydrogen in the future, for example – there are also caveats.

“You want the entire energy system to be as efficient as possible, and a lot of energy is lost with hydrogen,” says Kleijn. “Hydrogen is not energybron but energyDragons. So you convert wind energy into hydrogen, and then later turn that hydrogen into electricity. In that process you lose 20 percent energy twice. If you use electricity directly, it is much less.”

Another thing: there are roughly two ways to make hydrogen. Kleijn: “This is currently happening mainly with nickel or with the very scarce iridium. If we want to scale up with hydrogen, we cannot do that with iridium. Other less rare metals really have to be chosen.”

According to Sprecher, some caution is also required, because there is hardly any hydrogen production yet. “We already assume that this is the future, while there is still so much uncertainty.”

Sprecher is afraid that too many people already consider themselves rich. “But if all industries start using hydrogen, you will have huge capacity problems. Green hydrogen is still in its infancy.”