Dutch government to invest 750 million euros to develop hydrogen network

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -The Dutch government on Wednesday said it would invest 750 million euros ($789 million) through to 2031 to develop a national hydrogen transportation network.

In a letter to parliament, Energy Minister Rob Jetten said the government would task Gasunie, the country’s gas network operator, with managing and operating the network, parts of which are due to be completed by 2026.

“The aim of our rollout plan is to have a transport network that passes through the major industrial clusters, connects them to storage facilities and connects the Netherlands with neighboring countries,” Jetten said.

The letter sketched the route the network will take, often re-purposing Gasunie gas pipes.

“We (will) now start the construction of the public hydrogen network in the Netherlands, which will be a great boost for the transition towards a more sustainable energy system,” said Gasunie CEO Han Fennema.

The Dutch government has been discussing the idea of a hydrogen transportation network for years, but concrete steps towards building it have accelerated in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Two commercial consortiums have announced plans in the past two months to build hydrogen import terminals in the Port of Rotterdam.

Plans outlined by Jetten included making use of part of the 20 gigawatts worth of wind farms planned or under construction in the Dutch North Sea by 2030 as a source of green energy that can be used to produce hydrogen.

One gigawatt of electricity is about enough to power a million households, but current processes for producing hydrogen are costly and inefficient.

Jetten said the government is targeting 500 megawatts of conversion capacity by 2025 and 3.5 gigawatts by 2030, though he did not specify how that capacity would be built.

“Achieving the cabinet’s goals for conversion capacity and the (hydrogen) transport volumes that this capacity will generate is very likely,” Jetten wrote.

($1 = 0.9507 euros)

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; editing by David Evans)