Belgium – In Zeebrugge, an engineering company Sweco is in charge of getting the 25 megawatt green hydrogen production plant permission from the city government.
This is a first for Belgium and further strengthens its hydrogen ambitions. The client is the Hyoffwind consortium between Virya Energy and Fluxys, which has chosen John Cockerill and BESIX as its technology partners and as its partners for the design and construction.
Sweco is in charge of getting the right environmental permit for the construction and operation of this electrolysis plant for green hydrogen, as well as getting the subsidies for it. Also, it will help with green hydrogen projects in Belgium and the Netherlands.
The application for a permit was made in late 2021, and the consortium expects the permit to be given out by the middle of 2022. The final investment decision will be made in the course of 2022.
Hydrogen economy
In the first phase of the project, there will be a plant that can convert 25 MW of electricity into green hydrogen. In the second phase, the partners want to increase that to 100 MW. This project, as well as the development of the hydrogen infrastructure, will make a big difference in the Flemish, Belgian, and European hydrogen strategies. By taking the first step toward making Flanders and Belgium a European hub for green hydrogen, this project will help.
The Hyoffwind project is being built by a group of people who work on everything in the energy value chain. The consortium is made up of Virya Energy, which makes and sells renewable energy, and Fluxys, which moves green molecules. It wants to build a power-to-gas plant that can turn renewable electricity into green hydrogen.
Building a green hydrogen economy is important because it can be used as a raw material for industrial processes and for a wide range of transportation applications, such as electric cars and hydrogen fuel cells. Hyoffwind will also help the energy system be more flexible and stable by finding an effective way to deal with the increased variability caused by renewable electricity production.
