Shell Gives Green Light for Green 200 MW Hydrogen Plant

Artist impression Shell 200 MW electrolyser at the Tweede Maasvlakte, near Rotterdam.

It’s official, Shell is going to build a 200 MW electrolyser on the 2nd Maasvlakte near Rotterdam, that is new land, already conquered from the North Sea. Other big companies have announced they will do the same at the same location: BP, Uniper en Air Liquide.

Shell had earlier experience, gained from a 1 MW installation on their refinery in Wesseling, Germany, but this one is going to break all records. Expected completion date 2025. Supplier: Thyssenkrupp. Price tag: 1 billion euro. Input: offshore windpark Hollandse Kust Noord. The output will be used to replace “gray hydrogen” in the Shell Rotterdam refinery. The next project is already planned for, will be built in Eemshaven and will be 20 times as large as the one in Rotterdam.

Overivew of the Dutch hydrogen backbone by 2030, most retrofitted from existing natural gas pipelines.

The path has now been cleared to realize several GW of green hydrogen capacity during the remainder of this decade. The hydrogen economy has started in earnest in the Netherlands.

[nos.nl] – Shell bouwt groene waterstoffabriek in Rotterdam

26 Ton DAF e-Truck Overcomes High Alpine Road

DAF CF Electric drives from Salzburg to Kärnten, via the Großglockner-Hochalpenstraß detour. Max. 12% slope, 3550 m altitude, 326 HP, energy consumption increases from 1.77 kWh/km to 2.7 kWh/km high in the mountains, but on the way down, a lot of electricity is recuperated. Conclusion of the trip: no problems driving a heavy e-truck through the mountains.

[spiegel.de] – Elektrischer 26-Tonnen-Lkw überwindet Hochalpenstraße

The entire Alpine mountain pass in Austria.

Oceans of Energy – North Sea Offshore Solar

The Dutch company “Oceans of Energy” has installed 50 kW worth of solar modules 15 km out of the coast of The Hague, and so far they have weathered 140 kmh storms and 10 meter waves.

Oceans of Energy has raised its ambition level and wants to roll out in 3 phases: 1, 10 and 100 MW resp. The big selling point of this technology is that no valuable and very scarce Dutch land resources need to be occupied with solar panels. The Dutch part of the North Sea has an area of 57,800 km. With an annual solar radiation of ca. 1000 kWh/m2 and a solar panel efficiency of 20%, this area would in theory be sufficient to generate an annual 11,560 TWh. Note that Dutch annual electricity consumption is 120 TWh or merely 1% of the total Dutch North Sea solar potential. And then there is that 85 GW of wind potential.

Who needs Saudi-Arabia if you have the Netherlands?

All-in-all, more than sufficient to power the entire EU. Not going to happen, of course. Cheaper energy in the form of hydrogen from for instance, Africa, will limit the economic energy harvesting potential of the North Sea. But to bridge a few decades of energy starvation due to geopolitical factors, like the Ukraine war? Who knows?

[offshore-energy.biz] – Dutch floating solar unit weathers through major North Sea storms intact
[offshore-energy.biz] – Oceans of Energy plans twentyfold scale-up of floating solar plant in North Sea
[offshore-energy.biz] – Oceans of Energy’s floating solar system weathers through all North Sea storms
[wikipedia.org] – Floating solar

The Netherlands Becoming an Electricity Exporter

In juni heeft Nederland (netto) 10% van alle geproduceerde elektriciteit geexporteerd.
Dit past in een langetermijn trend waarin NL zich ontwikkelt van een (netto) stroomimport-land naar een stroomexportland.#grafiekvandedag pic.twitter.com/J8Gua9Vn9w

— Martien Visser (@BM_Visser) July 3, 2022

Netherlands – Large LNG Imports

Record LNG-aanvoer. Ooit bespot als 'nutteloos' deel van de gasrotonde, heeft Gate nu de hoofdrol. Wat een 'mazzel' dat we zo'n terminal hebben!
Tevens dat NL nu de kennis, ervaring en contacten heeft om snel op te schalen. Zo belangrijk is robuust energiebeleid.#grafiekvandedag pic.twitter.com/OicOdiP8yT

— Martien Visser (@BM_Visser) July 2, 2022

Dark = 2022, light 2021. Share LNG imports related to total gas consumption in percentages. Note that in the summer much less gas is consumed than in the winter.

The Netherlands manages to import surprising amounts of LNG, because it has an LNG-terminal in Rotterdam, the usefulness of which was long in doubt. No more.

Due to US imperial adventures in Ukraine, Germany is now forced to build 2 LNG-terminals Brunsbüttel and Wilhelmshaven “at Tesla-speed”.

[wikipedia.org] – Liquefied natural gas (LNG)
[offshore-energy.biz] – Uniper to build, operate Germany’s first LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven

Netherlands – In June 11 Hours More Renewable Electricity Supply Than Demand

In juni geen worteltjes, maar winterpenen!
Wel wat weinig wind, waardoor de back-up centrales overuren moesten maken. Op 11 uren was er deze maand meer elektriciteit uit zon en wind, dan de nationale elektriciteitsvraag. #grafiekvandedag pic.twitter.com/CDxISEWrKh

— Martien Visser (@BM_Visser) July 1, 2022

Filling Dutch Natural Gas storage on Target

Het vullen de NL gasopslagen gaat gestaag door. Inmiddels is de 50% vulgraad gepasseerd. Op naar 100% en dan graag zo snel mogelijk. De tussenstand van 'de grote drie':
Norg: 66%
Grijpskerk: 47%
Bergermeer: 37%#grafiekvandedag pic.twitter.com/Bz3fBK4R42

— Martien Visser (@BM_Visser) July 2, 2022

Dutch gas storage filling degree currently at 50% and on target to achieve EU prescribed level in the Winter. Total capacity 140 TWh.

Vattenfall Offers Hydrogen Cluster in OSW Bid

In the coming Autumn, the bidding will be opened for building Hollandse Kust West offshore wind park. Vattenfalls stands out in that they offer to feed the 45 MW output of Kavel VII (parcel 7) into electrolysers, mounted in the three wind turbine towers. In this way, expensive cabling can be left out completely. The hydrogen will be brought onshore via a pipeline.

Vattenfall has previous experience with hydrogen generation at sea in Scotland, with a single turbine.

[vattenfall.com] – Vattenfall wil in Nederland eerste waterstofcluster ter wereld bouwen

Thomas Geiger Review Lightyear Zero

The world’s first solar car goes into limited production. This is a very expensive proof-of-concept car, the next model will cost 30,000 euro and will be produced in very large numbers.

Autonomous kilometers per day:

Netherlands: 30-40
Spain: 70
Tropics: 100

The one billion cars on this planet bridge a combined annual distance of about one lightyear. The ambition is that all these cars will do so “solar-propelled”.

[spiegel.de] – Dieses Elektroauto zapft die Sonne an
[wikipedia.org] – Lightyear One
[forbes.com] – Why Lightyear Could Be The Most Game-Changing Car Company On the Planet

How it all began in 2013 in Australia:

[deepresource] – TU Eindhoven Wins Solar Challenge 2013

From [1:23] Lex Hoefsloot in 2013 in the Australian Outback. Now he is CEO of Ligthyear, 9 years later, with the Dutch answer to Tesla. Fantastic achievement!

2022 Share Solar & Wind Dutch Electricity 33%, up from 25%

Zon en wind zijn dit jaar (tot nu toe) per dag goed voor gemiddeld 33% van de NL elektriciteitsvraag. In 2021 was dat 25%.
Er zijn forse variaties. De maximumopbrengst werd op 7 april behaald. Het minimum was op 25 januari. #grafiekvandedag pic.twitter.com/hNd7beE60N

— Martien Visser (@BM_Visser) June 29, 2022