Intra-European hydrogen corridor plans advance

Bilbao, Amsterdam and duisport, together with the Energy Agency of the Basque Government, Petronor, Evos Amsterdam and Zenith Energy Terminals, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) putting the Spanish, German and Dutch governments in a prominent role to realise the ambitions of the European Union in establishing these corridors.

“Port of Bilbao is a hub for short sea shipping, facilitating around 30% of trade between Spain and Europe,” said Andima Ormaetxe, director operations, commercial and logistics, Port of Bilbao.

”It is our aim to become carbon neutral by 2050 and therefore green corridors between Bilbao, the Netherlands and Germany are of importance to help decarbonise, not only the Basque Country Industry, but also other industrial regions within Europe.”

Green corridors

The MoU builds on an agreement concluded earlier this year between Bilbao and Amsterdam, with the specific aim of initiating a viable corridor that allows for Basque produced renewable hydrogen and hydrogen derivatives to be exported to the port of Amsterdam for local offtake.

With the addition of duisport, this corridor can be extended, with the Port of Amsterdam transforming into the gateway to the German market, opening up the possibility to supply Basque hydrogen to the large industrial offtakers located in the Rhine-Ruhr region.

As part of their cooperation, the parties will focus on production of renewable hydrogen by Petronor in the Basque Country, identification of offtake potential and demand centres in Duisburg and its surrounding industrial regions.

There will also be an evaluation of transportation, storage and distribution methods to provide solutions to secure the supply of renewable hydrogen and its derivatives to the respective end-users.

The ports of duisport and Amsterdam have also signed a Joint Study Agreement (JSA) to conduct a detailed study on all aspects related to establishing a resilient supply chain for hydrogen between Amsterdam and the Rhine-Ruhr region.

Both agreements were signed during the H2 Connecting Event in Duisburg.