The German energy giant RWE wants to invest billions of euros in the RWE location in Eemshaven. The fact that the group is investing so much money in this location has everything to do with the belief that the area will become the energy and hydrogen hub of Northwest Europe. “RWE really sees Groningen as a Hydrogen Valley,” says Marinus Tabak, director of central asset management at RWE, in the Newspaper of the North.
RWE has plans to make the coal- and biomass-fired Eemshaven power plant more sustainable by replacing coal with biomass and capturing the CO2 and supplying it as a raw material to the chemical industry. The group also wants to make the gas-fired Magnum power station, which RWE will almost certainly take over from Vattenfall later this year, free of CO2 emissions, writes the Dagblad van het Noorden. There will also be a hydrogen factory of initially 50 megawatts that will receive green energy from RWE's local Westereems wind farm. It is possible that RWE will soon be able to expand the hydrogen factory into the largest in the Netherlands. However, this depends on whether the group receives permission to build and operate the new offshore wind farm Hollandse Kust (west).
According to Marinus Tabak, this involves investments of six to seven billion euros. “I wouldn't know of a place in the North where a company invests so much money,” he says in the Dagblad.
The fact that RWE invests so much in the Eemshaven has to do with the belief that the area will become the energy and hydrogen hub of Northwest Europe. Tabak points to all wind farms in the North Sea. The idea is that these cables will all eventually come to Eemshaven, because there is no more room elsewhere. In Eemshaven, with its proximity to Gasunie's hydrogen network and the chemical industry, all conditions are present for large-scale production of green hydrogen. “RWE really sees Groningen as a Hydrogen Valley.”
Innovation
Innovation plays a major role in the projects in Eemshaven, the newspaper writes. The production of green hydrogen will become 20 percent more efficient thanks to a new technology. This technology will first be tested on a small 50 megawatt electrolyser and later applied to the large hydrogen factory. At least, if the tender for the Hollandse Kust wind farm is won. In that case, a 2027 megawatt hydrogen factory should be operational in Eemshaven by 600.
In the meantime, RWE is also waiting for permission from the competition authority to take over the gas-fired Magnum power station from Vattenfall. If the purchase goes through, RWE wants to make the plant free of CO2 emissions, possibly by using green or blue hydrogen. With the latter, the CO2 is captured and stored or reused.
In the meantime, RWE also continues to fight for the 'green' survival of the coal-fired power station. It is currently fueled by 20 percent biomass, but if it were up to RWE, the coal would be completely replaced by biomass and the CO2 would be captured and supplied as raw material to the chemical industry in Delfzijl.
Source: Economie.Groningen.nl
