Future of the hydrogen economy in the Northern border regions

Looking back at the Hydrogen Cross Border Conference 2025

On Thursday, March 13, 2025, the fifth anniversary of the annual Dutch-German conference on hydrogen developments, primarily in the northern border regions of both countries, took place in Zuidbroek. The conference, preceded the evening before by a large-scale dinner with key stakeholders, was titled "Hydrogen Cross Border Conference: Best/Bad Practices, Hands-on Recommendations & Learnings" and was attended by over 200 experts, roughly evenly distributed across both countries.

Together with the H2-Ostfriesland initiative, the Aurich district, MARIKO GmbH, the H2 region Emsland, FME, OLEC eV and Enterprise Europe Network, New Energy Coalition responsible for organizing the event and concluded with a keynote lecture by our expert Catrinus Jepma about the hydrogen initiatives around the industry in East Groningen.

Hydrogen value chain

This year's chosen theme: how to close the entire hydrogen value chain and what the biggest challenges (or appear to be) are. The theme naturally aligns well with the general feeling in the market that hydrogen development is currently quite difficult. This is primarily due to a lack of visibility on a swift business case for green hydrogen. Complex and unnecessarily restrictive regulations are another delaying factor, in addition to uncertain and unpredictable European and national policies. And then there are the pervasive chicken-and-egg problems, as the entire value chain needs to be built and all components must be aligned.

Yet, judging by the wide range of regional and local actions and initiatives reported at the conference, the spirit in the mutual border regions does not seem to have significantly diminished. While greening may be receiving somewhat less priority in (inter)national politics, and applications of green hydrogen and hydrogen carriers in large industrial clusters appear to be stagnating, the smaller-scale investment initiatives in production, transport, and storage, as well as applications in cluster 6 companies, SMEs, and mobility (particularly ships and trucks), are indeed showing considerable dynamism in the aforementioned regions. Noord-Nederland The Netherlands and Northwest Germany, as evidenced by contributions from companies like Enexis, Statskraft, EWE, Gasunie, and FME, share the ambition to utilize offshore wind power and local onshore generation to produce and use green hydrogen locally, knowing that storage capacity is naturally available in the region and that the hydrogen transport system will be rolled out from the North first. It may also be helpful for hydrogen applications that the power grid is becoming increasingly challenging for consumers and that numerous subsidies are available to support local and regional initiatives in parts of the value chain. Moreover, the fact that local and (inter)regional lines of communication in the North are often short helps.

The three officials who spoke, Wiebke Osigus (Lower Saxony Minister for Federal and European Affairs and Regional Development), Henk Emmens (Provincial Executive of Groningen) and Henk Jumelet (Provincial Executive of Drenthe), all emphasised the importance of regional support for hydrogen initiatives and also the usefulness of cooperation across the Northern Dutch-German border: “Then we learn from each other”.

The main spoilsports

What are the main obstacles according to those present? The still very high price of green hydrogen (>€10/kg), even when imported from "cheap" countries (>€8/kg), doesn't help industrial applications, but seems less problematic for mobility. The EU's far-reaching additionality and correlation requirements for the recognition of green hydrogen are also a thorn in the side (get rid of it). Fuel cells require extremely pure hydrogen: will that work, or will we have to return to combustion engines (both)? Will transport and storage get off the ground quickly enough (5 to 10 years should be possible)? Will there be more predictable subsidies for both demand and supply development (both), and do standalone local or regional hydrogen hubs have a future (the question is; connecting to a backbone offers more solid opportunities)? These were examples of questions that arose, illustrated by just as many practical initiatives.

Attention was also paid to: blue hydrogen as an affordable pioneer for green, the need for aggregators to stimulate hydrogen markets, and the need for more insight into public acceptance of hydrogen (image still reasonable, but can change).

Cross-border cooperation

And what about cross-border collaboration? It was striking that the tone and type of initiatives between the two countries were quite consistent. Despite the fact that the Dutch and Germans each spoke in their own language, they understood each other perfectly, and the atmosphere was excellent. As for the development of the hydrogen economy, these regions will certainly have a role to play.