Shell Nederland is working together with partners including green energy company Eneco to develop a green hydrogen hub at Port of Rotterdam
Shell aims to produce green hydrogen on the Tweede Maasvlakte using renewable electricity from offshore wind, potentially from the Hollandse Kust (Noord) offshore windfarm for which the companies recently submitted a proposal in a joint venture called CrossWind, in response to the latest auction for offshore wind in the Netherlands.
Both companies have a track record of developing, building and operating offshore windfarms. If successful in the auction, the CrossWind consortium plans to have Hollandse Kust (Noord) operational in 2023. It will have an estimated installed capacity of 759 MW, generating 3.3 TWh per year.
“Together with the large-scale development of offshore wind projects comes the challenge of intermittency in wind generation,” said CrossWind. “That is why we will invest in innovation that can be implemented at full-scale in future windfarms to help balance the electricity network and keep costs low.
Eneco chief strategic growth officer Kees-Jan Rameau said, “With CrossWind, we want to work towards the realisation of the first offshore windfarm with innovations with regards to system integration.
“In addition to the energy the windfarm can generate, it offers opportunities to develop innovative techniques that can add value by accelerating the energy transition.”
If CrossWind wins the auction, it plans to develop a green hydrogen plant on the Tweede Maasvlakte on a site designated by Port of Rotterdam. Shell would be the launch customer for the hydrogen which will be produced by electrolysis. The facility will have a capacity of around 200 MW.
Shell intends to start operations by 2023 and produce about 50,000-60,000 kg of hydrogen per day. The green hydrogen produced will be used at a Shell refinery in Pernis to decarbonise the production of fuels, reducing the production of 200,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. “It is important that as of 2023 there is enough green hydrogen available to decarbonise trucks in the transport sector,” said the JV. “Approximately 2,300 hydrogen-powered trucks could run on this volume of green hydrogen.”
Shell Nederland president director Marjan van Loon said, “We want to develop a new value chain together with our partners and governments – from wind to hydrogen – to create a green hydrogen hub.
“We regard this as a stepping stone for the recently announced NortH2-project. These projects fit well with our aspirations to provide more and cleaner energy to our customers, at home, on the go and at work.”
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