Recap: Wind meets Gas 2023
Every year in October, New Energy Coalition organises the two-day Wind meets Gas. We organise this symposium especially for our (international) partners and specialists in the field, and it focuses on the latest developments in hydrogen and offshore energy in the energy transition. This year, we organised Wind meets Gas for the seventh time. Professor of energy and sustainability, and our scientific specialist energy transition em. Prof Catrinus Jepma, has been closely involved in the symposium from the beginning and looks back on the 2023 edition for us in this article.
Recap
“This year was another successful and well-attended, now 7th version, of Wind meets Gas based on the tried and tested concept. What was new this time was that on the Friday afternoon there was a special focus on input from the younger generation to express how they view the energy transition. The successful matchmaking sessions -participants could make short (introductory) appointments among themselves via an app tool- introduced in the previous symposium edition were further extended.
Every year in October, New Energy Coalition organises the two-day Wind meets Gas. We organise this symposium especially for our (international) partners and specialists in the field, and it focuses on the latest developments in hydrogen and offshore energy in the energy transition. This year, we organised Wind meets Gas for the seventh time. Professor of energy and sustainability, and our scientific specialist energy transition em. Prof Catrinus Jepma, has been closely involved in the symposium from the beginning and looks back on the 2023 edition for us in this article.
A major theme on the first symposium day, Thursday, discussed were similarities and differences between plans in the US to encourage hydrogen developments, among others, through the Inflation Reduction Act versus initiatives in Europe through The Green Deal Industrial Plan. Although the approaches are quite different, it was stressed that the EU and the US should not consider each other as competitors but as partners in this regard.
Much attention was also paid to energy developments in the North Sea, helped by the large attendance of officials, diplomats and industry experts from northern Europe. The opportunities for cooperation are enormous, but this still requires a lot of consultation, coordination and regulation. It was also stressed that the North Sea region is of decisive importance for the entire European energy transition, but that care must be taken not to want to be ‘more Roman Catholic than the Pope’ in regulations in order to make the pace required by climate policy. So-called blue hydrogen options were also raised here as possibilities or even solutions.
On Friday, key industrial players in the Eemshaven/Delfszijl area, in support of their proposed investment plans, signed off on a piece of hydrogen pipeline. The deal will allow Gasunie to start laying connections for the future hydrogen investments of ENGIE, Equinor, RWE and Vopak. This was a historic moment because if the proposed investments come to fruition, Eemshaven will rapidly develop into one of the largest hydrogen production sites in Europe and even beyond.
In the Friday afternoon programme, a great dialogue emerged between the CEOs of the aforementioned players and a number of young people on how different generations can work together to find solutions in the energy transition.”
Want to know more about Wind meets Gas? Visit the symposium’s website for more information.
