The Netherlands to build the world’s largest offshore electrolyzer

Last week was characterized by a lot of wind and low prices. From Wednesday, there was a lot of wind generation in the Netherlands, France, and Germany. Wind largely met the power demand in Western Europe, resulting in significant price reductions. On Saturday, between 2 am and 5 pm, electricity prices in the Netherlands were either negative or equal to 0, and the average electricity price that day was only 23.5 €/MWh. The average weekly Dutch electricity price eventually ended up at 79.5 €/MWh, almost €20 lower than a week earlier.

It remained troublous in France throughout the week. It has now become clear that maintenance at several nuclear reactors has been delayed. Strikes also caused delays at French nuclear reactors last year. At that time, there were fears of a shortage of generation capacity during the winter.

Gas prices fell slightly last week. April, May, and June were almost €2 cheaper and closed at 41.1, 41.5, and 41.9 €/MWh respectively. CO2 remained relatively stable and became slightly more expensive: the contract for December 2023 was €0.40 more expensive and closed at 87.7 €/EUA.

The Dutch electricity price for April also remained stable and closed only €0.40 higher at 104.1 €/MWh. However, May and June fell away. May became almost €6 cheaper and closed at 102.5 €/MWh, while June closed €2 lower at 114.6 €/MWh.

Last Monday, the Dutch government announced that it intends to build the world’s largest electrolyzer at sea. The electrolysis capacity will be approximately 500 MW and will be located in the Ten Noorden van de Waddeneilanden offshore wind energy area. Windpark Gemini, from which PZEM purchases electricity, is also located here. This location was chosen because, among other reasons, there is an existing natural gas pipeline that can be used for transporting hydrogen to land. The electrolyzer is expected to be operational around 2031, and first, a project with a capacity between 50 and 100 MW will be experimented with.

For 2024, gas became slightly cheaper with only a decrease of €0.60 as it closed at 49.8 €/MWh. CO2 became €0.30 more expensive and closed at 91.6 €/EUA. The Dutch electricity contract moved very little but still closed €2 lower at 123.6 €/MWh.

The CSS for next year deteriorated and closed at -4.3 €/MWh. The CDS ended up negative and settled at -0.3 €/MWh.

Weekly changes