TNO and GroenvermogenNL enter into a cooperation agreement. Together, the parties want to accelerate the scale-up of green hydrogen.
The parties signed a cooperation agreement on 6 February. It marks the start of a multi-year programme aimed at accelerating innovation and scaling up electrolysis for the production of green hydrogen. TNO and GroenvermogenNL are jointly establishing an innovation centre for electrolysers. The first step in this is a facility for endurance testing of electrolysers.
Hydrogen is essential for making chemical clusters within Dutch industry more sustainable. Here, the Netherlands has a unique position thanks to its advanced infrastructure, strong manufacturing industry and great innovative strength.
Accelerating upscaling
The parties specifically want to accelerate the scale-up of green hydrogen. This is hydrogen produced using energy from renewable energy sources. As a result, there are no CO2 emissions, making green hydrogen an environmentally friendly and sustainable source of energy.
The programme that TNO and GroenvermogenNL are developing includes facilities and organisational power. A key premise of the cooperation is to remove risks that hinder the large-scale deployment of electrolysis in the Netherlands. Consider technical and business-economic challenges.
Main points
Main points of the programme include bringing together the hydrogen supply chain and combining validation facilities at every step and scale in the development of electrolysers. However, also consider contributions to the development and implementation of standards, protocols and benchmarks.
In addition, the parties want to accelerate the common learning curve using advanced analytics, data analysis and machine learning. TNO and GroenvermogenNL are also committed to monitoring and evaluating the performance of pilot plants.
National growth fund
GroenvermogenNL is an initiative of the National Growth Fund. It focuses on supporting and accelerating the transition to large-scale use of green hydrogen in industry. GroenvermogenNL works together with companies, the government and knowledge institutions. Among other things, it carries out R&D projects, as well as pilots, demonstrations and scale-up projects.
For its part, TNO is committed to developing electrolysis technology with facilities in Petten, Groningen, Rijswijk and Eindhoven. It has long been involved in GroenvermogenNL's R&D projects. TNO wants to play a leading role in scaling up electrolysers for green hydrogen.
'Important step towards innovations'
"This cooperation marks an important step towards innovations in green hydrogen technology. By combining innovation power and optimising test facilities. We are creating an open innovation programme with impact on the energy transition. Together, we are giving a powerful boost to the scale-up of electrolysis," says Marjan Oudeman, GroenvermogenNL board.
Richard Braal, Divisional Director Industry, TNO Energy and Materials Transition: "With this cooperation, we want to strengthen the Netherlands' position in the field of electrolysis and ensure that innovations actually make the step into practice through scale-up. We connect facilities, value chains and strengths of the Netherlands such as the manufacturing industry, chemical clusters and offshore hydrogen opportunities. This creates an internationally unique innovation hub for the Netherlands, attractive and accessible to end-users, manufacturers and component suppliers of today and for the future."
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
