Netherlands looking at offshore hubs and interconnectors, where does hydrogen stand?

Energy islands are no longer being considered in the Netherlands. Instead, the focus has been shifted to offshore energy hubs and interconnectors. With rising (cyber)security concerns as a result of a number of recent incidents in European waters, as well as the Russia-Ukraine war, diversification of the energy system is high on the agenda. Offshore wind and offshore solar sound just like the perfect couple, but where does hydrogen fit in?

At the Offshore Energy Exhibition & Conference (OEEC) panel session on grids and interconnectors, Huygen van Steen, Program Manager Offshore Wind and Energy System at the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), Joris Koornneef, Lead scientist North Sea Energy Program at Dutch research institute TNO, Saskia Jaarsma, Head of Offshore Development – Large Projects Offshore at Dutch transmission system operator (TSO) TenneT, and Michiel van Rij, Country Lead Offshore Wind Development Netherlands at RWE, noted that net zero could not be reached unless the appropriate grid is in place.

According to Koornneef, the Netherlands has challenges in connecting all the offshore wind and renewable energy projects to the grid, as well as the electrification of the biggest consumer of the future, the industry, thus the grid takes time to develop.

“It is a challenging task to get the grid ready in time to electrify all the processes that you can electrify. Then you have challenges to also put in the hydrogen grid, in the Netherlands but also the Northwestern Europe domain, and the CO2 grid. There are three grids that need to develop and all three struggle with deploying in time. This has to do with the spatial constraints in developing the grid, but also the business case to support the whole value chain in investing in those grids, in those future business cases,” Koornneef noted.

All the easy options are gone, prompting investigation at all concepts, as well as deeper inland connections, Van Steen said, speaking from the government perspective. The current focus is on offshore energy hubs which are central points to collect and distribute energy, also allowing the integration of other systems.

“From the government side, we no longer speak of energy islands, but we speak of energy hubs offshore. The foundation concept depends on the location. At the moment we are looking at a big area, called Search Area 6/7, with about 20 GW. I think it will be designated next year. A platform concept for an energy hub will be the most feasible. That is what we are now going to further explore as a first or second step after the interconnector,” Van Steen said.

According to Jaarsma from TenneT, which studied the energy island concept, spatial considerations are not in the Netherlands’ favor and working with islands is less convenient, but the Ijmuiden Ver area might have been physically suitable for an island.

Energy islands furthermore do not compare well in terms of affordability and permitting: “We see in other countries like Denmark that they are also having issues with bringing the islands ahead. From our perspective, we still think platform-based solutions are the way forward. You can also think of mother-daughter constructions that add on future capacities to an existing concept,” Jaarsma said.

TNO is studying the concept post-2040 on the Dutch continental shelf. Koornneef said: “If Netherlands wants to go towards a 70 GW future and Europe a 300 GW offshore wind future, then the energy island could be a nice opportunity to have in the northern part of the Netherlands. An energy island that is also a service hub could also be multifunctional. Not just for wind or for collecting energy, but multi-purpose in having maybe defense monitoring, those kinds of facilities. It is post-2040 that we are studying it because of the long lead time.”

According to TNO’s lead scientist, it is interesting to study offshore hubs that have offshore wind and offshore solar, which could also be offshore wave and tidal and energy storage. Electricity storage in the offshore domain is also being studied heavily and could alleviate this grid. Solar is complementary with offshore wind, and wave and tidal are much more predictable, so they could serve together in making optimal use of offshore grids.

However, there is a lot to be done on the regulatory framework and in standardization of how to connect these energy assets. Technically there need to be improvements and cost reductions, but certainly, in the regulatory and standardization domain a lot needs to happen to roll out these technologies fast.

From a technical point of view, there is complementarity between offshore wind and offshore solar. TenneT is looking into these options, currently not possible, but also not fully endorsed: “Maybe in the future we can think about and come to an approach with these sectors where the sites are tendered for a bigger size allowing for more wind combined with offshore solar or other conversion technologies to increase the connected power to the offshore grid. That way we can make better use of our assets and that is the development we definitely support,” Jaarsma said

RWE’s Van Rij believes that the priority is to get the electricity grid in place both on the national and international level, focusing on collaboration with North Sea countries and finding a way they can interconnect, sharing cost and coordinating on different topics.

Of note, Dutch TenneT and the UK’s National Grid are developing the LionLink multi-purpose interconnector that will connect a Dutch offshore wind farm with a capacity of 2 GW to both countries via subsea interconnectors.

In the UK, the government publicly supported the development of the interconnector and the Dutch side is also getting ready to get government support and match the development in the UK. The interconnector is set for commissioning in 2032.

Ten years from now, Koornneef believes that the current 30 GW of offshore wind in the North Sea can easily be doubled, with hybrid interconnectors developed: “Whole Europe will benefit from interconnectors in the North Sea. Ideally, you would have an interconnected system as fast as possible with offshore wind, because we certainly need it until 2035-2040. From my point of view, you would also be looking into the first large-scale offshore hydrogen facilities to at least have demonstration plans.”

Van Steen: “It is a very conceptual technical point of view, but we would like to go to smarter, safer and secure and nature inclusive energy systems offshore. Maybe this hydrogen demo is also connected with an electricity cable so you can switch between molecules and electrons based on how the markets are. It is good for the business case, but also resilience. If there is a cyber-attack or a physical threat, we have that all secured, and we are also doing it in harmony with nature.”

The demand is currently lagging behind and that makes the willingness to pay for green electricity lower than needed, both from the industry and the end user, according to Van Rij. When demand and supply come in sync, that is the moment to push forward.

Companies and investors have been taking a step back in investing in hydrogen as it turned out to be a lot more expensive than initially thought or does not grow as much as wanted.

Cost comes in the first place due to an increase in supply chain and power prices costs, as well as a regulatory push from Brussels that is tight on when green hydrogen can be produced and when not, Koornneef noted: “You see there was a hype five years ago on hydrogen with the stumbling over each other in memorandums of understanding or investment announcements, but not yet decisions. And now you can see that reality kicks in.”

However, looking at the past, this is quite normal for new technologies. The hiccups will be bypassed, making a five-year delay in total, having the plans for 2035 realized in 2040.

In light of this, a clear regulatory framework is required to push hydrogen over the first hurdle, followed by the infrastructure to dispatch green hydrogen to all the big industry clusters. In the end, the demand needs to be there and the consumers need to start asking for green products since they need to be willing to pay for them.

One of the rising concerns in the European (offshore) energy arena is (cyber)security. European countries have different approaches, with Germany being very strict with high norms, while the Netherlands has almost none in terms of offshore wind, leaving it up to the developers.

Furthermore, what can be learned from the Russia-Ukraine conflict and recent incidents in European waters is that diversification of energy sources is highly needed, both offshore and onshore.

Koornneef notes that this is very high on the agenda, but the shift is leaning a bit more towards cost “You cannot rely on just one supplier for electricity. In the North Sea it is really important to diversify your energy system. Then you can play with it, if I have a downside on my electricity grid, I can ramp up my hydrogen grid. You can diversify between your energy factors in the future. The priority was basically to just get enough energy in the system and the costs do not matter, and now it is with the economic downturn and higher interest rates getting towards cost.”

Van Steen states that the North Sea countries need to have that discussion and harmonize the rules for wind farms. This can be done by first having a dialogue, then slowly raising the bar in the tender systems, working towards not a criterion in the tenders but a standard criterion eventually for all the developers in Europe.

If a company wants to build a wind farm, there should be certain standards in terms of cybersecurity. Then the government can check on that, gradually making wind farms more resilient.

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