During the third administrative roundtable ‘Hydrogen and Green Chemistry,’ leading figures from business and academia established new agreements on scaling up technology and intensifying research and innovation.
This occurred under the auspices of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Change. The aims are unambiguous. There is a well-defined action plan with clearly defined milestones. Additionally, funding is available. Now we simply need to pick up the pace,’ a unanimous roundtable agreed.
With the official approval of the GroenvermogenNL growth fund proposal (€338 million), investments and activities to develop the hydrogen and green chemistry ecosystems in the Netherlands will begin in 2022. The roundtable discussed the plans submitted for the second round of the national growth fund, which aim to further strengthen the ecosystem through investments in agri-based chemicals, electrolyser manufacturing equipment, green hydrogen upscaling and application in sustainable value chains, synthetic aviation fuels, and hydrogen production at sea.
Much progress can be seen in the report on the Roundtable Action Agenda on Hydrogen and Green Chemistry’s monitoring. According to the roundtable, the urgency of the change is becoming increasingly apparent. The clusters’ energy strategies have been developed; the new cabinet will approve ready-made plans for additional wind capacity; and the necessary infrastructure is being developed in a coordinated manner and with sufficient resources, including €750 million for converting the gas grid to hydrogen transport. However, there are bottlenecks. For instance, the roundtable concluded that the Netherlands is still underutilizing the EU Innovation Fund’s potential. This is demonstrated by the fact that no Dutch ideas received financing in the first round. Additionally, the roundtable views 2022 as a critical year in which all components of the action agenda must be accelerated.
The round table members delivered a number of critical signals to one another and to the administration. For instance, the business case cannot be ignored temporarily, and there are lessons to be gained from the biobased business case. Internationalization is equally critical; the government is therefore urged to pursue cross-border collaboration. Extra care must be paid to system integration. The electrical system must be expanded by a factor of two to three. Companies want to collaborate to assist TenneT in overcoming this big obstacle. Additional attention is also required for other hydrogen hues in order to expedite the shift. For the Dutch manufacturing business, it is critical to identify locations throughout the value chain where you can establish a unique position globally. Finally, where should engineers come from? However, knowledge in a breadth of non-technical directions is also required. At the moment, demand for human capital exceeds supply.
At the conclusion of the roundtable, the leaders of the top sectors shared their reflections on the third roundtable and outlined their plans for the following six months leading up to the fourth roundtable on June 28, 2022. Among other things, the figureheads urged the round table to develop a bundle of critical national initiatives that industry, knowledge-based organizations, and government would like to collaborate on. Thus, the sectors engaged would demonstrate their unanimity and support for a package of climate-related projects.
