RWE and Neptune Energy have signed a Joint Development Agreement to develop the offshore green hydrogen demonstration project “H2opZee” ahead of 2030.
H2opZee is a demonstration project aimed at building 300 to 500 MW of electrolyser capacity far out in the Dutch North Sea, in order to produce green hydrogen by using power from offshore wind. The hydrogen will then be transported to land through an existing pipeline with a capacity of 10 to 12 GW, so it is already suitable for the further roll-out of green hydrogen production to gigawatt scale in the North Sea. The feasibility study is planned to start in Q2 of 2022.
H2opZee consists of two phases: In the first phase, a feasibility study will be carried out and an accessible knowledge platform set up. The objective of this is to start the roll-out of hydrogen at sea in the Netherlands. In the second phase, the project will be implemented. For that phase, a tender methodology has yet to be defined.
Sven Utermöhlen, CEO Offshore Wind, RWE Renewables: “… we want to develop the H2opZee project to demonstrate how offshore wind can be an ideal partner for the production of green hydrogen at scale, and to explore the best approaches to system integration. As RWE, we have a 20 years track record in offshore wind and have the hydrogen expertise along the entire value chain under one roof. We are convinced that learnings from the H2opZee demonstration project will help in ramping-up the hydrogen economy in the Netherlands, as it presents an important step towards the roll-out of large-scale green hydrogen production offshore.”
The project is among the world’s first at this scale. It is one of the 37 proposals submitted for the second round of the National Growth Fund. While the core consortium of H2opZee has been kept small, knowledge will be shared with the industry and nearly 40 organisations have already signalled their support.
