Port of Antwerp-Bruges is now participating in the German H2Global Foundation with an endowment sum of €100,000 ($100,150).
The foundation has set itself the goal of making green hydrogen acceptable as an energy substitute in Europe – thereby advancing the energy transition and independence from Russian gas supplies.
Port of Antwerp-Bruges said its position in the international logistics chain and as a chemical cluster is crucial in accelerating the market ramp-up of green hydrogen and its derivatives.
The H2Global Foundation has developed a competition-based double auction mechanism by which its subsidiary HINT.CO acts as an intermediary and auctions green hydrogen and derivatives at the lowest possible price. Afterwards they sell the green hydrogen in Germany and Europe to the highest bidder.
READ: Port of Antwerp secures €100 million leaseholders for NextGen District
The expected negative difference can be compensated by the €900 million ($902 million) subsidy from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology of Germany (BMWK).
“As an energy hub, the port is one of the places where the energy transition becomes manifest in a variety of activities, from terminal handling and storage to transmission and distribution networks and off-take,” said CEO Jacques Vandermeiren.
“Committing massive investments, we are striving to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Together with our partners in the Hydrogen Import Coalition and the major players on our port platform, we are already supporting projects that pursue the production, transport and storage of hydrogen.
“Our involvement in H2Global is intended to provide an additional boost to the market ramp-up required for this. In this way we want to reconcile economy and climate.”
The current supply situation viewed against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine underscored the urgency for long-term planning of energy sourcing, Vandermeiren added.
“It is currently impossible for north-western Europe to obtain all the energy it needs from renewable energy sources,” he said.
“The plans for importing green hydrogen from countries with much more solar energy are becoming more and more concrete.”
Green hydrogen – or its derivatives – will be arriving at major ports such as Antwerp-Bruges, among others. And this is where the foundation’s idea behind the H2Global funding programme comes in.
Annick De Ridder, President of Port of Antwerp-Bruges added: “It is the declared ambition of our port to become the ‘green port’ of the future and the energy gateway to Europe. As an active pioneer of the hydrogen economy we have taken major steps in the last two years, always embedded in fruitful collaborations both at home and abroad.
“Because the hydrogen chain is complex, we have, for example, joined forces in a Hydrogen Import Coalition with five major industrial players and public stakeholders and are focusing on concrete projects that will shape the production, transport and storage of hydrogen.
“In the coming years, hydrogen projects such as with Chile and Oman (port of Duqm) will be further developed and we will start the construction of the Hyoffwind hydrogen plant. As a founding member of H2Global, we are putting some more ‘power’ into our hydrogen ambitions.”
