Gasunie has announced that construction of the national hydrogen network in the Netherlands has started.
Once operational in 2030, the €1.5bn network will connect major industrial areas in the Netherlands to one another, as well as to Germany and Belgium. It is expected to span 1,200km once complete and will be made up of existing natural gas pipelines that have been repurposed primarily. It is set to be linked to large scale hydrogen production facilities, import terminals at seaports and companies both in the Netherlands and abroad plotting a switch to hydrogen.
An official ceremony to mark the start of construction took place at the end of October, performed by the King of the Netherlands, taking place on the building site of Gasunie subsidiary Hynetwork Services in the port of Rotterdam. This is where the first section of the network will be built by contractor, Visser & Smiit Hanab. Zero emission equipment is set to be used throughout construction, while solutions such as HyTap will also be used, allowing Gasunie to safely connect end users to the hydrogen pipelines.
