Royal HaskoningDHV to Work on Europe’s Largest Offshore Wind-to-Hydrogen Project

Royal HaskoningDHV has been awarded a contract for environmental consultancy services for NortH2, a large offshore wind-to-hydrogen project being developed by a consortium comprising Shell, Gasunie, Equinor, and RWE, and supported by Groningen Seaports and Province of Groningen.

“We are thrilled to be part of the ground-breaking NortH2 development. Green hydrogen has an important role in the Energy Transition and can boost the Netherlands’ and Europe’s leading position here“, said Erik Oostwegel, Royal HaskoningDHV CEO.

NortH2 aims to produce green hydrogen using electricity from about 1 GW of offshore wind off the coast of the Netherlands by 2027, 4 GW by 2030, and 10+ GW by 2040. To produce green hydrogen and bring it to ends users, the NortH2 infrastructure will consist of: the new offshore wind farms in the North Sea, the infrastructure to bring the power onshore, the new electrolyser plant, the pipelines to deliver the hydrogen to the industry clusters in Northwest Europe, and underground storage of hydrogen in salt caverns.

“Challenges for NortH2 are related to the sheer size of the project developed by a large private-public consortium, legal requirements and (local) stakeholders”, Royal HaskoningDHV states.

The company, which will act as Permits, Consents, Environmental Impacts & Local Stakeholder Consultant, will map NortH2’s environmental and safety aspects, and deliver a legal framework for all NortH2 components for construction and operation. Royal HaskoningDHV will also provide a roadmap for obtaining the necessary permits and consents, and map all relevant stakeholders and environmental and social issues connected to the plans.

This is part of the Assess Phase which will inform the consortium’s further decisions leading to a final investment decision – planned for 2024.

The NortH2 project was launched in February 2020 by Shell, Groningen Seaports, Gasunie, and the province of Groningen. In December 2020, the consortium announced that the Norwegian energy major Equinor and German utility RWE joined NortH2.

In January of this year, the NortH2 consortium awarded a technical integration and optimization contract to Mott MacDonald, which will collate, evaluate and develop the potential technical solutions required to realise the project. The company will also provide cost, scheduling and risk management services associated with the technical implementation, to inform the developers’ investment decisions and the development for the project.