The province of Drenthe will develop a cross-border hydrogen region together with all neighboring provinces and the German state of Lower Saxony. The area wants to become a testing ground for hydrogen projects in order to contribute to the energy transition.
Both in the Netherlands and in Germany, efforts have already been made to build up their own hydrogen regions, where innovations and other projects in the field of hydrogen are stimulated.
By connecting the two so-called Hydrogen Valleys, a nod to the American high-tech center Silicon Valley, knowledge can be exchanged more easily and companies involved with hydrogen can come into contact with each other more quickly.
Hydrogen is already being used as a replacement for fossil fuels, for example in trucks, buses and industry, but this is not yet happening on a large scale. At the moment, mainly gray hydrogen is produced. This is done with the help of natural gas, so that CO2 is still released during combustion.
The intention is that in the future hydrogen will increasingly be generated using wind or solar energy. When using that green hydrogen, no CO2 ends up in the air. The production of green hydrogen is still relatively rare. The production process is complicated and very expensive.
Connecting the Dutch and German ‘hydrogen valleys’ should ultimately lead to green hydrogen being produced on a larger scale. As a result, its price should fall, making it more attractive for companies in particular to use hydrogen as a replacement for fossil fuels.
The northeast of the Netherlands is emphatically positioned on the market as a hydrogen region, because the area has a long history of generating energy through the extraction of gas and oil, among other things.
For example, last month the first public hydrogen filling station in the Netherlands opened in Emmen and a residential area is being built in Hoogeveen where the houses are heated with hydrogen. A little further north, there are plans for a green hydrogen factory in Eemshaven.
In the future, hydrogen could be transported from the North via the existing gas pipeline network of the Gasunie to heavy industry in, for example, the Randstad or the Rühr area. There are also plans to store hydrogen in empty Nobian salt extraction wells near Zuidwending.