NS HyMaP Information Bulletin No 20 Published

The   North Sea Hydrogen Ports and Maritime Community (NS HyMaP) Information Bulletin No 20 has been published.   The section below introduces the Bulletin.  If you would like a copy of the full Bulletin please contact Jon Jordan at [email protected]

The Bulletin was due out on Friday but was delayed as the Secretariat was submitting an application to COP 26 United Nations Climate Change Conference.  This application is to hold a half day event at COP 26. The event will examine the role of ports as Hydrogen Valleys and Hydrogen Hubs.  The COP 26 Meeting will be held in Glasgow from 1^st to 12^th November 2021. Further details of the proposed event can be found in this Bulletin.

We then move onto look at the key announcement from the European Commission that the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Joint Undertaking (FCH-JU) is to morph into the Clean Hydrogen Partnership.  The Commission has announced ten new Public-Private Partnerships that will take over from the existing Joint Undertakings and the Clean Hydrogen Partnership is one of them.  There is also a significant budget increase to €1 billion for the 2021 to 2027 budget period.

The Bulletin then looks at the funding priorities that have been agreed by the Programme Preparation Group developing the next North Sea INTERREG Programme.   One of the four priorities in the Programme is ‘Better Maritime Governance in the North Sea Region’ and this will be of particular interest to NS HyMaP Members.  Priority One in the Programme will also be of interest as it looks at ‘Robust and smart economies in the North Sea Region.’ This includes Smart Specialisation and Research and Innovation Capacity.

The last Bulletin featured a webinar which looked at UK Participation in the Horizon Europe Programme.   This Bulletin looks at a Brief Questions and Answers Paper on UK Participation which has been prepared by the European Commission.  It largely confirms the conclusions of the webinar which shows that the European Commission and UK Government seem to be ‘on the same page’ about Horizon Europe.

On 23^rd and 25^th February, Climate Action held a webinar as part of the preparations for the COP26 Conference in Glasgow this November.  Climate Action has published conclusions from the webinar each day and they have been included in the Bulletin.

NS HyMaP Member, Dentons has produced a White Paper looking at Scaling Up Green Hydrogen in Europe.  The Paper looks at developments in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.  It notes that the Region has a high potential demand for green hydrogen as a clean energy source or chemical feedstock; gas transportation infrastructure suitable for hydrogen use; and favourable conditions for sourcing renewable electricity. The Paper develops a business case that looks at factors needed to move from typically tens-of-MW-scale projects to investing in the tens of GW of production capacity that are likely to be needed to make green hydrogen cost-competitive with higher carbon alternatives, as it could be, in the 2030s.

NS HyMaP member Arup and Partners have been very active in the Hydrogen and Ports sector and are producing a Breakfast Webinar on Wednesday 17 March.  This seems an excellent way to start the day and details of the webinar are in this Bulletin.

Lastly, Scotland Europa are holding a webinar on the afternoon of Tuesday 9 March. The webinar is being held in collaboration with Scotland House Berlin and Hydrogen Europe.  The webinar looks at the development of a Hydrogen Economy in Scotland and in Germany.  Details of the webinar and a registration link are the final item in the Bulletin.