HY3 press release

Towards Dutch-German hydrogen value chains: connecting the dots to harness opportunities and create synergies for decarbonised industry and mobility

The HY3 project identified significant opportunities between the Netherlands and Germany for a common hydrogen market and infrastructure.

Forschungzentrum Jülich , the German energy agency – dena and TNO envision a sevenfold increase in a shared German-Netherlands hydrogen market between now and 2050. In their scenario up to 7.1 million tons of hydrogen produced from offshore wind energy feeds demand centres in both Netherlands and North Rhine-Westphalia through an interconnected backbone of more than 5000 km pipelines. However, to keep the demand and supply balanced throughout the year additional supply is needed via import and nearly 60 salt caverns for underground storage. This is what they think a transnational hydrogen economy might look like in 2050 if key actions are being taken.

Three research institutes cooperated under the project named HY3. This project was commissioned by ministries [1] of the Netherlands, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the Federal Republic of Germany to investigate the feasibility of a transnational green hydrogen value chain that spans across the North Sea through the industrial clusters of the Netherlands and North Rhine-Westphalia.

The HY3 project explored several facets of the hydrogen value chains for connecting hydrogen production at the Dutch and German North Sea with demand centres in both Netherlands and Germany, with a focus on the region of North Rhine-Westphalia. A key finding of the study is that cooperation between the Netherlands and Germany in developing a common hydrogen market and infrastructure boosts opportunities for realising a decarbonised regional economy.

The HY3 project explored several facets of the hydrogen value chains for connecting hydrogen production at the Dutch and German North Sea with demand centres in both Netherlands and Germany, with a focus on the region of North Rhine-Westphalia. A key finding of the study is that cooperation between the Netherlands and Germany in developing a common hydrogen market and infrastructure boosts opportunities for realising a decarbonised regional economy.

Dutch-German cooperation opens up a large-scale market for green hydrogen

The most promising sectors for green hydrogen usage are industry and mobility. Current industrial applications in petrochemical industry in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the Netherlands have a substantial hydrogen demand of 17 TWh and 41 TWh per year, respectively. By 2050, total demand is 7 times higher for the studied sectors and reaches up to 162 TWh in NRW and 239 TWh in the Netherlands. In the considered scenario, a common market of both NRW and the Netherlands more than doubles the potential hydrogen demand of each region thus increasing the opportunity for a large-scale market for green hydrogen. Dutch-German cooperation will be beneficial to build up and connect the markets for hydrogen in NRW and the Netherlands.

Domestic production and import of hydrogen on a steep growth path

For this study, it was assumed that green hydrogen is produced using electrolysis of fresh or desalinized seawater, powered by renewable electricity from offshore wind sources in the North Sea. By 2050, annual hydrogen production from offshore wind reaches 54 – 139 TWh for the Netherlands and 37 – 100 TWh for Germany [2].

To meet future hydrogen demand in the Netherlands and NRW, other sources beyond green hydrogen produced from offshore wind in the North Sea will be needed. One example is importing hydrogen. The import of hydrogen via harbours in both Netherlands and Germany was assumed to grow from 6 – 21 TWh per year in 2030 to 162 – 310 TWh in 2050.

Connected transport and storage infrastructure possible and necessary

Both the Dutch and German natural gas transmission grid operators have published their visions of a national hydrogen backbone. These where used as a starting point to analyse the transnational hydrogen infrastructure. This envisioned future infrastructure consists of more than 5000 km of converted natural gas pipelines. The study found that by partially repurposing the natural gas pipelines for hydrogen transport in the Netherlands and Germany yields sufficient transport capacity until 2030. After 2030, bottlenecks could occur in certain regions around hydrogen import harbours.

The development of hydrogen storage in existing and new salt caverns in both the Netherlands and Germany will be a useful and necessary balancing asset for offering flexibility to the energy system. In 2030, 1-5 caverns will be needed that each are able to store approximately 250 GWh of hydrogen, with this number increasing to at least 49-57 caverns by 2050 exclusively for hydrogen storage.

Call for action

To foster identified opportunities it is necessary to:

  • Spur joint initiatives to establish a common market;
  • Remove regulatory barriers;
  • Development of common vision for hydrogen infrastructure;
  • Cross border collaboration on industrial transformation;
  • Establish joint R&D and innovation initiatives and establish binational projects with net benefits to the Dutch and German energy systems.



[1] Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (Germany); Ministry of Economics, Innovation, Digitalisation and Energy, State of North Rhine-Westphalia; Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy (Netherlands)

[2] Note that this study does not yet include the ambitions of the new governments and the European Fit for 55 package. Fit for 55 refers to the EU’s target of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030​.