Dutch plan first bid for sizable offshore wind-to-hydrogen project

The building of a 500 MW offshore hydrogen electrolyser that is fueled solely by neighboring offshore wind turbines may be put up to bid as early as next year by the Dutch government.

Ten noorden van de Waddeneilanden, the formerly designated location for an offshore wind farm, will now only be used to produce green hydrogen using offshore wind. Ten noorden van de Waddeneilanden is one of the locations the Dutch government chose for new offshore wind farms last year. These farms might have up to 13.4 GW of total capacity spread among nine sites.

The government declared that the area off the coast of Groningen province would be used for large-scale offshore hydrogen production because a wind farm there was already intended to produce electricity, a nearby natural gas pipeline could be used to transport green hydrogen to land, and it can be properly connected to the onshore hydrogen network.

The project, which is slated to be operational around 2031, is thought to be the first large-scale use of offshore hydrogen production.

The Ministry for Climate and Energy Policy will first consult with the Groningen region, Wadden Sea stakeholders, and other stakeholders on issues like the landfall of the pipeline to transport the hydrogen from the offshore wind farm to shore and environmental aspects of the project before issuing any tenders.

The green hydrogen project Ten noorden van de Waddeneilanden will be the first to connect to Gasunie’s offshore hydrogen transport network, which is intended to be created to carry significant amounts of hydrogen ashore and to connect to the onshore hydrogen network.

The Dutch government will create a smaller pilot project with an electrolysis capacity of between 50 MW and 100 MW as a step toward the 500 MW offshore green hydrogen project. The purpose of the pilot is to evaluate and improve the technology in order to successfully complete the large-scale project.

Because to its vast gas network and well-developed import infrastructure, the Netherlands wants to be one of Europe’s top green hydrogen hubs. By 2030, the government wants to have 4 GW of electrolysis capacity.