This week the report ‘From Heavenn to Sustainable Hydrogen Valleys’ written by NewEnergy Coalition and Impact Hydrogen was published and discussed at the UNClimate Conference COP27 in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The report addresses the positive impact that Hydrogen Valleys can bring to countries and regions and how this can secure international hydrogen trade relations. It is based on the experiences of HEAVENN (Hydrogen EnergyApplications in Valley Environments for Northern Netherlands): a long-year programme for the development of a hydrogen value chain in the NorthernNetherlands plus one additional factor for success: “impact by design”. The combination of the two can lead to sustainable hydrogen trade allover the world.
During a panel discussion at COP27 New Energy Coalition’s Patrick Cnubben, director of hydrogen strategy pointed out that the Netherlands play a leading role in helping other countries to set up Sustainable Hydrogen Valleys by giving them the opportunity to learn from Europe’s first Hydrogen Valley, HEAVENN. Those best practices and the Dutch expertise on molecules and green hydrogen can help accelerate the global hydrogen economy.
ImpactHydrogen’s Director Ann Abheiden explains: “Sustainable Hydrogen Valleys are a combination of technical innovation, enabling environment and sustainable development. They are set up in a way that it does two things simultaneously: enabling economic growth in the region and producing green hydrogen to trade. This helps in setting up a secure environment for international trade in green hydrogen.”
To secure successful, sustainable trade two conditions have to be included in a trade deal: (1) asking contract conditions in alignment with a SustainableHydrogen Valley set up, (2) creating mutual benefits. The Netherlands can function as a knowledge expert, using the advanced expertise acquired through the realization of HEAVENN. In order to accelerate the development of HydrogenValleys worldwide, The Netherlands can set up local offices, so called HydrogenHubs, in countries The Netherlands trade with.
Furthermore, the report addresses: the key success factors and lessons learned from HEAVENN, Impact by Design and what it takes to implement it, financing possibilities which includes sufficient public funding to close the gaps, committed partnerships and robust political backing as well as the buy-in of the general public.
“This publication has been made possible thanks to a financial contribution from RVO/ Ministry of Economic Affairs & Climate Policy from the Netherlands, in order to support the Hydrogen initiative of Mission Innovation.”
About co-author NEC:
New Energy Coalition is a continuously growing network of knowledge institutions, businesses, government bodies and ngo’s working together to accelerate the energy transition for a sustainable future. www.newenergycoalition.com
