Dutch government backs first offshore green hydrogen project on an oil platform
The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) has awarded a subsidy of €3.6m to the PosHYdon project, the world’s first offshore green hydrogen pilot on a working oil production platform in the Dutch North Sea.
The project seeks to validate the integration of three energy systems: offshore wind, offshore gas and offshore hydrogen and will involve the installation of a hydrogen-producing plant on the Neptune Energy-operated Q13a-A platform. The Q13a-A is also the first fully electrified platform in the Dutch North Sea, located approximately 13 km off the coast of Scheveningen.
The green hydrogen will be mixed with the gas and transported via the existing gas pipeline to the coast. The 1 MW electrolyser will produce a maximum of 400 kg of green hydrogen per day.
Partners involved in the PosHYdon consortium include Nel Hydrogen, InVesta, Hatenboer, IV-Offshore & Energy and Emerson Automation Solutions. Nexstep, TNO, Neptune Energy, Gasunie, Noordgastransport, NOGAT, DEME Offshore, TAQA and Eneco joined this group last year. With this subsidy, the consortium can start up all activities for this pilot. The remaining budget will be funded by the consortium partners.
Neptune Energy is the operator of the Q13a-A platform, with partners EBN and TAQA.
What proportion of the whole project does the subsidy amount to? As ever with these announcements this always seems to be opaque or “commercially confidential”.
What happens in periods of low wind speeds and how will this affect the mix of gases being pumped ashore?