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Eneco and Shell Nederland announced they have jointly, via the joint venture CrossWind, submitted a bid for the Hollandse Kust (noord) wind farm zone. When successful, they will use the energy production for Shell’s possible future green hydrogen production on the Tweede Maasvlakte in Rotterdam.
The tender for the wind farm zone which allows for the development of a wind farm with a maximum capacity of 760 MW, ran from 2 tot 30 April 2020. The winner is likely to be announced within 13 weeks after the tender closed. CrossWind will be competing against at least Danish energy company Ørsted.
CrossWind will invest in various innovations that can be implemented at full-scale in future wind farms to help balance the electricity network and keep societal costs low.
“With CrossWind, we want to work towards the realisation of the first offshore wind farm with innovations with regards to system integration” said Kees-Jan Rameau, Chief Strategic Growth Officer at Eneco.” In addition to the energy the wind farm can generate, the park offers many opportunities to (further) develop innovative techniques that can be of added value in accelerating the energy transition.”
Wind energy from Hollandse Kust (noord) to power green hydrogen plant
If the CrossWind bid is successfull, the future wind energy production from the Hollandse Kust (noord) wind farm could power the green hydrogen plant that Shell is planning to build on the Tweede Maasvlakte.
Marjan van Loon, President-Director of Shell Nederland, says: “Through the connection of this wind farm to our possible future green hydrogen plant in the Port of Rotterdam, 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.”
The current plan includes a approximately 200 MW hydrogen plant on a site especially designated by the Port of Rotterdam (2 GW conversion park) with Shell as the launching customer. In this plant, green hydrogen will be produced through electrolysis – a process in which water is split into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable electricity.
Depending on a final investment decision, Shell intends to start operations by 2023 to produce about 50,000 – 60,000 kg of hydrogen per day. The green hydrogen produced will initially be used at the Shell refinery in Pernis to partially decarbonise the production of fossil fuels. This saves a minimum of 200,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. As of 2023 there should be enough green hydrogen available for decarbonisation of trucks in the transport sector. The plan is for approximately 2,300 hydrogen trucks per day to run on this volume of green hydrogen as the market for trucks on hydrogen further develops.
