The Netherlands Agency Enterprise (RVO) has granted RWE a funding commitment of €124.9 MM for its Eemshydrogen project. Eemshydrogen is a project to build a 50-megawatt (MW) electrolysis plant at RWE's site in Eemshaven to produce green H₂. RWE plans to operate the electrolyzer with green electricity from its Westereems wind farm, which is located only around 5 km from the Eemshaven power plant site.

Green H₂ in the Netherlands. The Netherlands wants to be climate-neutral by 2050, meeting European climate targets. Green H₂ plays an important role in this, which is why the government has set targets for this in the Climate Agreement: an electrolysis capacity of 3 gigawatts (GW)−4 GW (3,000 MW–4,000 MW), with sufficient storage sites and infrastructure, by 2030. At the end of 2022, the government sharpened this: the new target is 8 GW (8,000 MW) of electrolysis capacity by 2032.

To help further develop the production and application of renewable H₂, the Dutch government has developed several subsidies and financing options, including the subsidy scheme Upscaling Fully Renewable H₂ Production via Electrolysis (OWE). RWE successfully applied for this grant in the first round of bidding.

Sopna Sury, COO H₂ RWE Generation said, “This is excellent news. The funding is one crucial component to make the overall project economically viable and advance the ramp-up of the H₂ market in the province of Groningen and beyond. By supplying clean H₂, for example to the transport sector and chemical plants, our Eemshaven site will help reduce carbon emissions of industrial companies in North-Western Europe.”

RWE plans to take a financial investment decision (FID) for Eemshydrogen at the end of 2024. A major prerequisite for this is the timely connection to the required infrastructure, such as the national H₂ backbone, in order to transport the green H₂ to the market. RWE already received an environmental and building permit for Eemshydrogen and is in contact with potential off takers. The suppliers for the required equipment and the construction of the electrolysis plant will be contracted after FID. The Eemshydrogen plant is scheduled to go into operation in 2027.