German vitality firm Uniper has admitted its H2Maasvlakte inexperienced hydrogen mission within the Port of Rotterdam can be delayed and won’t in any case, pace for a fast-track ultimate funding choice (FID).
With a front-end engineering and design (FEED) examine close to completion and EU subsidies awarded, the flagship mission seemed to be on monitor for a primary 100MW part to be commissioned as early as the tip of 2026, earlier than scaling as much as 500MW in subsequent years.
However a spokesperson for Uniper has revealed that the earliest 12 months the mission might now begin up is 2030, leaping straight to the complete 500MW of electrolyser capability by this date.
The spokesperson admitted additional that 2030 can also be “a shifting goal” relying on how demand develops.
The vitality firm had earlier been awarded a grant for H2Maasvlakte from the EU’s Innovation Fund final summer season, nevertheless it didn’t signal a ultimate grant settlement with the European Fee after failing to safe an influence buy settlement (PPA), consistent with the EU funding situations.
H2Maasvlakte is designed to attract on offshore wind energy to supply inexperienced hydrogen onshore.
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Uniper revealed that “not sufficient offshore wind was accessible” for a number of competing inexperienced hydrogen developments as much as 2028.
The principles stipulate that solely new renewable energy vegetation inbuilt the identical grid bidding zone can be utilized.
In line with Uniper, one downside with growing Dutch inexperienced hydrogen tasks is that the timelines for hydrogen subsidies and offshore wind tenders don’t match up, making it troublesome to safe a PPA upfront of presidency assist or vice versa.
Within the case of H2Maasvlakte, the principles narrowed the sphere to offshore wind farms inbuilt Dutch waters inside three years of an electrolyser.
“Grid charges have gone up sharply,” the Uniper spokesperson added, referring to a tripling of charges for corporations related to the high-voltage grid within the Netherlands since 2021 and a scarcity of clear incentives for offshore wind builders to promote their electrical energy to inexperienced hydrogen producers reasonably than different potential energy offtakers.
Uniper is presently calling for the Dutch authorities to exempt inexperienced hydrogen tasks from grid charges, which is already coverage in Germany for electrolysers put in as much as 2026.
The German vitality firm additionally identified that whereas the up to date Renewable Power Directive units clear hydrogen targets in trade and transport, these haven’t but been transposed into Dutch legislation, creating uncertainty about steps that can be used to incentivise renewable hydrogen and its potential offtakers.
Uniper declined to reveal the anticipated levelised price of hydrogen that might be produced at H2Maasvlakte.
Whereas its grant from the Innovation Fund has fallen by way of, the vitality agency is continuous to discover different subsidies for H2Maasvlakte, though it additionally declined to reveal any particular programmes it had utilized for.
Uniper was Germany’s largest importer of pure gasoline previous to Russia’s warfare on Ukraine and obtained a multibillion euro bailout to stop its collapse when Russian provides and property have been reduce off by sanctions
Now majority owned by the German authorities and again in revenue, Uniper has mentioned it plans to speculate €8bn ($8.6bn) in renewables by way of the remainder of the present decade and in addition decarbonise its gasoline enterprise by investing in inexperienced hydrogen.
Rotterdam position
A lot of different massive inexperienced hydrogen tasks are additionally being developed on the Port of Rotterdam. For example, Shell introduced it had taken FID on its flagship 200MW Holland Hydrogen 1 plant in July 2022.
This mission, which is because of start operations in 2025, will draw on energy from the Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm, which is part-owned by the oil main and commenced operations up in December final 12 months — throughout the EU’s three-year window for additionality.
In the meantime, BP and HyCC (a three way partnership between chemical substances agency Nobian and the Inexperienced Funding Group) are growing their very own 250MW H2-Fifty plant, which was chosen by the EU as an Vital Mission of Frequent European Curiosity in December 2022.
Nonetheless, whereas the Port of Rotterdam Authority had beforehand recommended this facility could possibly be on line as early as 2025, no timeline has been detailed by the co-developers.
(A model of this text first appeared in Recharge’s sister publication Hydrogen Perception on 3 April, 2024))
