A European Strategy on Hydrogen: good news for the Northern-Netherlands Hydrogen Valley

On May 19th, the European Parliament adopted a motion on “A European Strategy on Hydrogen”. The Northern Netherlands is pleased with this report since it acknowledges the important role of Hydrogen for our economies and the environment.

The report is a reaction to the EU’s Hydrogen Strategy that was launched in July 2020 and which promotes the development of the European hydrogen economy, based on renewable electricity from wind and solar farms. The report stresses the role of regions and hydrogen valleys in initiating the production and application of renewable hydrogen.

The Northern Netherlands is pleased that the report calls for the European Commission to build on the Hydrogen Valleys Initiatives, to support their development and help those involved to pool their knowledge and investments. The Hydrogen Valley status was granted to the Northern Netherlands in 2019. Since then we have worked on developing an integrated green hydrogen chain. We are the first Hydrogen Valley in Europe and in our valley we link individual projects together, in order to demonstrate the systemic integration and thereby also allow for the large-scale green Hydrogen use, application, and deployment.

MEP and Shadow Rapporteur Bart Groothuis negotiated on this file on behalf of the Renew Group, the liberals in the European Parliament. He states that the development of the hydrogen economy is “great for the Northern Netherlands”.

You can listen to a radio interview with Bart Groothuis here (starting at 6:28).

Watch the Plenary session of the European Parliament here. 

An interview with Bart Groothuis (in Dutch).

The Northern Netherlands, as front runner on hydrogen, actively provided input on this report and gladly sees that the report focusses on the repurposing of the existing gas infrastructure, guarantees of origin for the ramping up of renewable hydrogen, and the need for more financial incentives for research and development in this field.