Equinor has joined Europe’s biggest green hydrogen project the NortH2-project. The project aims to produce green hydrogen using renewable electricity from the offshore wind off the coast of the Netherlands of about 4 gigawatts by 2030, and 10+ gigawatts by 2040, kickstarting the hydrogen economy in Northwest Europe.
NortH2 was launched in February 2020, with Shell, Groningen Seaports Gasunie, and the province of Groningen. Equinor joins RWE as new partners to the project. The project will complete a feasibility study by 2021, to start project development activities in the second half of 2021.
The project will have a capacity of 1 GW in 2027, 4 GW by 2030, and 10+ GW by 2040 for electrolysis. This equates to 0.4. million tonnes of green hydrogen production in 2030 and 1 million tonnes of green hydrogen production by 2040. This can abate 8 to 10 million tonnes of CO2 emissions. This is equivalent to the yearly emissions from road traffic in Norway. The rapid growth in offshore wind is well suited to developing a green hydrogen value chain.
Northwest Europe is well-positioned to develop an integrated hydrogen value chain from offshore wind development and renewable power generation to production, storage, transport, and the sale of green hydrogen.
The North Sea has a great potential for large-scale wind development, there is an extensive existing natural gas infrastructure that is suitable for storage and large-scale transport of hydrogen, and there are large industrial clusters in the Netherlands and Germany as well as heavy-duty vehicle OEMs that could economically benefit from a ‘first mover’ advantage.
