Shell wants to produce hydrogen on the Second Maasvlakte using electricity from wind energy. This wind energy will preferably come from the offshore wind farm Hollandse Kust (north). Through the CrossWind joint venture, Shell and Eneco are participating in the tender for this wind farm. If the consortium wins the tender, a two hundred megawatt electrolyser could produce fifty to sixty thousand kilos of hydrogen every day by 2023.
Shell and Eneco are participating with the CrossWind joint venture in the tender for Hollandse Kust (North). If the consortium wins the tender, they expect to be able to put the Hollandse Kust (North) offshore wind farm into operation in 2023. The wind farm will have an installed capacity of 759 megawatts in total and will provide at least 3.3 terawatt hours of electricity per year. The wind farm will be located approximately 18.5 kilometres off the Dutch coast at Egmond aan Zee.
Electrolyser
Although companies are not yet obliged to provide storage capacity for excess wind power, offering consortia receive extra points if they wish to invest in this. The hydrogen plant, with a capacity of two hundred megawatts, is to be located on an industrial site that the Port Authority is constructing on the Maasvlakte for electrolysers from various companies. The H2-Fifty project of BP and Nouryon, which want to build a 250 megawatt electrolyser, is also planned here. It is expected to be operational in 2025. At that special industrial site (‘conversion park’) wind energy from the North Sea is used to produce hydrogen. The conversion park is located by the sea and the hydrogen produced there goes by pipeline to the users.
Refinery and transport
Shell plans to start production in 2023 to produce around fifty to sixty thousand kilos of hydrogen per day. Shell will initially use the green hydrogen for its refinery in Pernis. This will save the company at least two hundred thousand tonnes of CO2 per year. The ambition is to have enough green hydrogen by 2023 to make the transport sector directly sustainable. This would enable around 2,300 trucks to run on green hydrogen every day, while the market for hydrogen-powered trucks continues to develop.
Earlier this year, Shell announced plans for the NortH2 project where, together with Gasunie and Groningen Seaports, it plans to build a three to four gigawatt electrolyser in 2030. The ambition is to grow to ten gigawatts in 2040.
Hydrogen pipeline Rotterdam
According to CEO Allard Castelein of the Port of Rotterdam Authority, the project accelerates the plans for the construction of a hydrogen pipeline for the Rotterdam industry. The Port of Rotterdam Authority and Gasunie want to construct and operate the hydrogen pipeline jointly. The pipeline will run alongside the A15 motorway from Maasvlakte to Pernis. The final decision for the construction is scheduled for the first half of 2021. If everything goes according to plan, the pipeline should be delivered at the same time as Shell’s electrolyser (2030). In the future, the Rotterdam hydrogen pipeline will connect to the national backbone for hydrogen that Gasunie is developing.
Blue and green
In addition to these two mega-electrolysers, various companies in the port area are working on plans for smaller specimens in the order of five to one hundred megawatts. The H-vision consortium is also working on a plan for making hydrogen.
