Royal HaskoningDHV to work on the NortH2 project
Royal HaskoningDHV (an engineering consultancy firm with HQ in the Netherlands) has been appointed as an environmental consultant by the NortH2 consortium.
Royal HaskoningDHV will assess NortH2’s environmental and safety aspects and will deliver a legal framework for all NortH2 components for construction and operation.
It will also provide a roadmap for obtaining the necessary permits and consents, and it will map all relevant stakeholders and environmental and social issues connected to the plans. These deliverables are part of the Assess Phase upon which the consortium will make further decisions leading to a final investment decision, which is planned for 2024.
Royal HaskoningDHV CEO Erik Oostwegel, said: “We are thrilled to be part of the ground-breaking NortH2 development. Green hydrogen has an important role in the Energy Transition and can boost the Netherlands’ and Europe’s leading position here.”
About the NortH2 Project
NortH2 consortium consists of Shell Nederland, Gasunie, Equinor, RWE and support partners Groningen Seaports and Province of Groningen. It focuses on offshore wind power, as much as 4 GW of green hydrogen by 2030. It also wants to upscale to more than 10 GW of green hydrogen by 2040. The first of these wind farms can be up and running by 2027 and used for green hydrogen production.
In addition, there are also plans for a large electrolyser plant in Eemshaven, where wind power will be converted into hydrogen. The consortium is also considering the option of building offshore electrolysers in one of the next phases.
Eventually, it will supply one million tonnes of green hydrogen initially for industrial and heavy goods transport in the Netherland and a wider Europe. Later on, it will supply green hydrogen to domestic consumers, using Gasunie’s existing natural gas infrastructure.
NortH2 comprises the entire green hydrogen value chain in five functional systems from source to end-user:
- New 10GW+ windfarms in the North Sea ca. 130 km from Eemshaven
- The infrastructure to bring the power onshore
- The new electrolyser plant where the energy is converted into green hydrogen
- The pipelines to deliver the hydrogen to the industry clusters in Northwest Europe
- Underground storage of hydrogen in salt caverns to be able to match supply and demand
