Neptune Energy joins EU Clean Hydrogen Alliance

Neptune Energy managing director Lex de Groot said there is a “growing consensus” that hydrogen production will be required at scale for countries to meet their emissions reduction targets set out by the Paris Agreement.

Mr de Groot said “Hydrogen offers a solution to lower emissions in many hard-to-abate sectors, such as steel and heavy-duty transport. It can provide long-term energy storage at scale, support improvements in air quality and strengthen energy security.

“We believe hydrogen should play an important role in enabling decarbonisation and are already advancing efforts through our PosHYdon pilot, the world’s first offshore green hydrogen project. We see strong, positive opportunities for hydrogen to play an important role in future energy supply.”

Neptune’s PosHYdon project will see a hydrogen production plant installed on the Neptune-operated Q13a platform in the North Sea. Electricity generated by offshore wind turbines will be used to power the hydrogen plant converting seawater into demineralised water, then into hydrogen via electrolysis. The Q13a platform itself is the first fully electrified platform in the Dutch sector of the North Sea.

Other firms from the Netherlands are exploring ways to exploit the country’s resources to support hydrogen production. A consortium of Gasunie, Groningen Seaports and Shell Nederland plan to build a large offshore wind facility to generate green hydrogen and the Netherlands’ Government is carrying out a study into the potential advantages of linking hydrogen production to offshore wind energy via integrated tenders.

The European Clean Hydrogen Alliance was launched in June, to bring private and public sector stakeholders together and is part of the EU’s strategy to support Europe’s push to become carbon neutral by 2050. The alliance is open to all public and private actors with activities for renewable or low-carbon hydrogen.