The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) has awarded RWE a grant of €125m for its 50MW Eemshydrogen electrolyser project.
Eemshydrogen will be installed at RWE’s site at Eemshaven in the Netherlands and the company plans to operate the electrolyser with electricity from its Westereems wind farm, which is located just 5km from the sitet.
Chief operating officer of RWE Generation and country chair RWE Netherlands Marinus Tabak said: “This is excellent news.
“The financing is a crucial part of making the overall project economically viable and further kick-starting the hydrogen market in the province of Groningen and beyond.”
RWE plans to make a financial investment decision (FID) for Eemshydrogen by the end of 2024.
An important condition for this is the timely connection to the necessary infrastructure, such as the national hydrogen backbone, to transport the green hydrogen to the market.
RWE already has an environmental and building permit for Eemshydrogen and is in contact with potential customers.
The suppliers for the necessary equipment and the construction of the electrolyser will be contracted after the FID.
The Eemshydrogen plant is scheduled to be commissioned in 2027.
The Netherlands is targeting 8GW of electrolysis capacity by 2032.
To help further develop the production and application of renewable hydrogen, the Dutch government has developed various subsidies and funding options, including the Scaling Up Fully Renewable Hydrogen Production via Electrolysis (OWE) subsidy scheme.
RWE submitted an application for this grant in the first bidding round.