Netherlands says it’s “too early” to talk about hydrogen production in Sines
After the announcement of an investment of 600 million euros to install a solar power plant in Sines and produce hydrogen for the Netherlands, the country has tempered expectations.
The Netherlands considers that “it is still too early” to talk in detail about the project to install a solar plant in Sines to produce green hydrogen. The country is “seriously” interested in importing this gas from Portugal, but is looking at these intentions with caution, said the media outlet Dinheiro Vivo.
Last week, the Secretary of State for Energy, João Galamba, announced a project to produce hydrogen in Sines through renewable energy generated by solar panels, through the solar plant installation with 1 GW of capacity. The planned investment in this project, to be developed with the Netherlands, will be around 600 million euros, he told TSF Radio.
However, to Dinheiro Vivo, Noé van Hulst, from the Dutch Ministry of Economy and Climate Policy, who met with Galamba in Brussels to negotiate this project, was more moderate. Yes, the Netherlands “is seriously interested in exploring several options to import green hydrogen,” but “it is still too early” to talk about closed projects.
“We had a meeting in Brussels to talk about the next steps, including how this plan can fit into the rules of the European Union. But it is still too early to say more than that at the moment,” the Dutch Government’s special envoy told the newspaper. The Netherlands believes that hydrogen could be critical in the transition to a greener economy.
“Hydrogen is one of the few possible ways to decarbonize the heavy goods transport and industrial sectors, for which other options are more expensive and require seasonal energy storage,” said Noé van Hulst.
