The King of the Netherlands has officially commissioned the first section of the national hydrogen network at the Port of Rotterdam. The ceremony was also attended by Stientje van Veldhoven, Minister for Climate Policy and Green Growth, and Willemien Terpstra, CEO of Gasunie. The section in question is a 32-kilometer pipeline connecting Maasvlakte and Pernis, marking the first completed route in the development of the national infrastructure for hydrogen transport.
Construction of the country’s hydrogen network began in the autumn of 2023. With the launch of this first section, it is now possible to transport hydrogen directly from production sites in Maasvlakte to industrial facilities. In the coming years, plans are in place to expand the network to cover the Netherlands’ major industrial regions, as well as to integrate it with storage facilities and the infrastructure of Germany and Belgium. The project is viewed as a crucial component in the formation of a unified European energy system, bringing together the transport of hydrogen, CO2, natural gas, heat, and wind energy.
The total length of the national hydrogen network is projected to reach approximately 1,200 kilometers in the future, with a significant portion of the infrastructure being established by repurposing existing gas pipelines. Gasunie notes that this network will serve as a key prerequisite for the development of a fully-fledged hydrogen market and the decarbonization of industry. The first hydrogen production plant has already been connected to the system, and over the coming years, plans call for connecting new production facilities, import terminals, and industrial consumers to the network in Rotterdam.