EU support for the green hydrogen region of Europe: Northern Netherlands
The Northern Netherlands has been selected by the de Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) of the European Commission to start the negotiations for a EU grant agreement of 20 million euros. The grant is meant to develop a fully-fledged green hydrogen value chain in the Northern Netherlands. The ‘HEAVENN-consortium’, led by the New Energy Coalition’s Energy Valley, has participated in the call for applications in April and it consists of 31 public and private parties from six European countries. The call application was supported by over 65 national and international parties such as California, Japan and New Zealand. The HEAVENN-project is unique because it comprises the entire hydrogen value chain within one geographical region. The consortium aims to sign the grant agreement before the beginning of next year which will allow the region to start the six-year project and become Europe’s leading region in hydrogen.
Green Hydrogen Value Chain: from production to filling stations
Projects that will be supported by the grant involve the large-scale production of green hydrogen as feedstock for the industry, storage, transportation and distribution of hydrogen and the application in the industry and built environment and mobility sector. Existing natural gas pipelines will be retrofitted to enable the transportation of hydrogen and new pipelines will be built at Chemical Park Delfzijl and between GZI-Next and Emmtec Industry Business Park in Emmen. An underground hydrogen storage facility is foreseen at HyStock in Veendam. Hydrogen as feedstock for heating in the built environment in Hoogeveen and Groningen and the industry in Delfzijl and Emmen will be developed. In the mobility sector hydrogen will be used for buses, light and heavy-duty vehicles and cars. Hydrogen filling stations will be built in Groningen and Emmen in addition to the previously planned stations in Pesse, Groningen and the already operational station in Delfzijl. Furthermore, hydrogen will be used for an inland vessel on hydrogen and for the production of e-kerosine for aviation. Heavy-duty vehicles are particularly suitable for hydrogen application and decarbonising this sector greatly contributes CO2-reduction and climate-neutrality.
Hydrogen HEAVENN
The Hydrogen Valley grant is one of the largest grants that the public-private partnership FCH JU, part of the HORIZON 2020 Framework Programme, has made available for one project. This grant and the regional cofinancing enables the winning region to go beyond separate hydrogen projects but develop a truely integrated and connected value chain of green hydrogen. This allows the region to take leadership in the field of hydrogen and be a source of inspiration for the development of other hydrogen regions in Europe and beyond. The so-called HEAVENN-project, an acronym for H2 Energy Applications (in) Valley Environments (for) Northern Netherlands, managed to beat projects from competing regions from among others Germany, Austria and Portugal.
See also website: HEAVENN
