Vloeivelden Hollandia solar park

Image: Novar/ Marcel Jurian De Jong

Construction has begun on the Netherlands’ largest project designed to produce fully green hydrogen.

The H2 Hollandia project, located in the northeastern province of Drenthe, will connect a 5 MW electrolyzer to the 115 MW Vloeivelden Hollandia solar park, which opened in 2021. Once operational, the system is expected to produce approximately 300,000 kg of green hydrogen annually from solar energy.

Dutch developers Novar and Avitec are leading the project with support from a consortium of Dutch engineering and technology suppliers, including Plug Power, Resato Hydrogen Technology, Van Halteren Technologies and Summit Renewable Projects, which are responsible for the installation. Dutch renewable energy company Repowered is handling the system control and optimization, while green energy service partner Klaer is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the system.

The H2 Hollandia project reached financial close in October. It is being financed by a combination of support from Novar and Avitec, national and regional level subsidies and backing from Utrecht-based Rabobank, which provided debt financing via a bespoke loan structure.

Jeroen Jansen, Consultancy Teamlead at Repowered, told pv magazine the project’s blend of financing and the securing of an offtaker for all the hydrogen produced were the key factors to reaching financial close. While the name of the offtaker has not yet been disclosed publicly, Jansen said that the hydrogen will be used regionally, with the offtaker set to load the hydrogen onto high-pressure cylinder trailers known as tubetrailers for transportation to end users involved in areas including local mobility applications.

Jansen explained that the connection to the Vloeivelden Hollandia solar park brings benefits to both the hydrogen and solar installations. The electrolyzer’s connection to the grid behind the solar park's existing grid connection saved project costs, while the use of an electrolyzer will allow the solar park to utilize currently untapped power.

“Currently, the solar park has 70 MVA grid connection capacity, but the park itself is 115 MW, so you have some curtailment,” Jansen explained. “With the electrolyzer, we basically prevent 50% of this curtailment, which will instead be used to produce hydrogen. Of course, it doesn’t run only on curtailment – it runs partly on curtailment and partly on regular solar – but this allows the solar project to use more energy, which is good from a sustainability perspective and for its business case.”

The size difference between the electrolyzer and solar park will ensure the electrolyzer is able to produce at full capacity daily, Jensen added. “During the day, when the sun is out, the system can produce a stable load because it is the bottom part of the solar production profile,” he explained.

Jansen also told pv magazine the outlook for building hydrogen plants next to solar or wind projects in the Netherlands is promising. “If there is an industrial company that requires hydrogen, or you have a mobility hub that wants to co-locate with a hydrogen plant, these projects can be limited by grid tariffs and costs,” he said. “Having on-site renewables is preferable when you consider these costs in the Netherlands, particularly as they’re expected to increase in the coming years.”

H2 Hollandia is expected to enter its testing and commissioning phase in the first half of next year and is anticipated to begin producing hydrogen sometime next summer.

In August, the Netherlands awarded €700 million ($820.5 million) to 11 companies in its second subsidy round for large-scale hydrogen projects. The awarded projects have a combined electrolyzer capacity of around 600 MW.

Novar recently established its own grid connection at the site of a project set to become the largest solar park in the Netherlands. The connection allows the company to act as its own distribution system operator by connecting directly to the high-voltage grid.