Currently, hydrogen only accounts for 2% of Europe’s energy consumption and its primary use is for the production of chemical products. Furthermore, almost all hydrogen is produced using natural gas.
A hydrogen strategy was adopted in 2020 and is a key part of the overall EU strategy for energy system integration. The aim is to define a “vision for the creation of a European hydrogen ecosystem from research and innovation to scale up production and infrastructure to an international dimension”. The ambition of the REPowerEU plan is to produce 10 million tonnes and import 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen in the EU by 2030 [1].
The Investments
One of the biggest hydrogen refineries will be built by Shell in the port of Rotterdam. The plant will have a 200-megawatt electrolyser and will use only renewable energy to produce 60 tons of renewable hydrogen every day. The renewable energy for producing the hydrogen will come from the Hollandse Kust (noord) offshore wind farm, a 759 MW project set to be operational in 2023. The plant operations are predicted to start in 2025 [3].
Other large companies are currently setting up the facilities to produce equipment for the hydrogen plants of the future. Siemens Energy and Air Liquide have announced plans to set up a joint venture focused on the production of industrial scale renewable hydrogen electrolysers in Europe. The factory will be based in Berlin and manufacturing is predicted to begin in 2023, with a yearly production capacity of 3 gigawatts reached in 2025 [4].
About Pager Power
Pager Power undertakes technical assessments on behalf of developers, which include assessing whether a proposed development infringes instrument flight procedures and would cause a problem for said technology. For more information about what we do, Please get in touch.
References
[1] Hydrogen, European Commission, n.d., accessed on: 31/07/2022.
[2] The Future of Hydrogen, IEA, date: 06/2019, accessed on: 15/03/2022.
[3] Shell to build Europe’s ‘largest’ renewable hydrogen plant to help power Dutch refinery, Anmar Frangoul, date: 07/07/2022, accessed on: 31/07/2022.
[4] The race to make green hydrogen competitive is on. And Europe is building industrial-scale electrolyzers to help, Anmar Frangoul, date: 24/06/2022, accessed on: 31/07/2022.
Thumbnail image accreditation: Alexandre Lallemand on Unsplash.com (August 2021). Last accessed on 3rd August 2022. Available at: https://unsplash.com/photos/Pcs3mOL14Sk
