Belgium Launches Offshore Wind to Hydrogen Project

Belgium's Port of Oostende, the engineering services provider DEME Concessions NV and Belgium-based investment management company PMV have launched a project to establish a plant in the Oostende port that produces green hydrogen from the electricity produced at Belgium’s offshore wind farms.

The goal of the project, HYPORT Oostende, is to build the green hydrogen facility in the Plassendale 1 port area and have it up and running in 2025.

Their goal is to have a plant operational in the port area of Ostend by 2025 that produces green hydrogen. This end product, green hydrogen, will both serve as an energy source for electricity, transport, heat and fuel purposes and as a raw material for industrial purposes.

If hydrogen (H2) is produced with electricity by means of electrolysis, no CO2 is released in the process. However, the hydrogen produced can only be called green if the electricity used in the process has also been generated in a green fashion.

The term ‘green hydrogen’ is thus used when green electricity is available that converts water into hydrogen via electrolysis. In other words, green hydrogen is hydrogen produced on the basis of renewable energy.

"With our energy transition in mind, we need to be able to temporarily store our green energy surplus using hydrogen as an energy carrier or to use hydrogen as an alternative raw material for converting the industry away from fossil fuels," said a joint press release.

By the end of 2020, 399 wind turbines will be operating off our coast with a combined installed capacity of 2.26 GW.

The new marine spatial plan leaves space for several hundred more wind turbines, which will generate around an extra 1.75 GW. That makes a total green energy generating capacity of around 4 GW, supplying half of Belgian households with electricity.