ITM Power PLC (LON:ITM) has announced the opening on Wednesday of the Hystock green hydrogen plant in Veendam near Groningen in the Netherlands, managed by Dutch natural gas infrastructure and transportation company Gasunie.
ITM Power supplied the 1MW (megawatt) polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyser system which will use renewable energy and water to generate hydrogen.
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The electrolyser is located at gas firm EnergyStock’s Zuidwending salt cavern storage facility in the northern Netherlands, with the generated hydrogen to be used either on-site or dispensed into tube trailers for supply to future hydrogen refuelling stations.
The Hystock plant was opened by King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, with Gasunie’s aim to achieve large-scale and profitable storage of hydrogen in the company’s EnergyStock underground storage facilities in the near future.
ITM Power’s chairman, Prof Roger Putnam CBE, who attended the opening ceremony, said: “Hydrogen is a key element in the transition to a fully renewable energy system; we now need immediate political and industry action to accelerate the adoption of renewable hydrogen.”
Han Fennema, Gasunie’s chief executive, added: “The HyStock hydrogen plant is the first specific step towards really making an effort to achieve the required further growth in the use of sustainable hydrogen throughout the chain, from production to usage. We will be able to make part of our existing infrastructure suitable for the transport and storage of hydrogen by 2030. This sustainable reuse of the existing gas network will help to keep our energy supply reliable and affordable.”