Belgium has published an updated national hydrogen strategy with increased import targets for green hydrogen and derivatives, and new plans to use offshore wind to produce green hydrogen on its North Sea coast.

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Its original strategy was only published last year, demonstrating how fast the industry is moving — particularly in light of the need for non-Russian energy in Europe.

Belgium now states that it aims to become a central hydrogen import and transit hub for Europe, and has set new targets:

  • By 2030, Belgium will import 20TWh of renewable hydrogen and derivatives yearly by 2030 — the equivalent of 606,000 tonnes of H2 — and 200-350TWh by 2050
  • By 2050, Belgium will use around 125-200 TWh annually itself — an increase from the 100-165 TWh in last year’s strategy.
  • A significant amount of the imported hydrogen and derivatives will be transferred to neighboring countries — including via a new €300m ($295m) pipeline to Germany.
  • A new market hub for hydrogen and derivatives, linked to the physical supply hubs, to be developed by 2025.

The new update to the strategy did not raise the ambitions of 150MW of local electrolysis capacity by 2025 and 100-160km of pipelines by 2026.

Belgium’s energy minister Tinne Van der Straeten said the new strategy has a “greater focus on import diversification, strategic storage and strengthening Belgium as a hub for the import and transit hub for renewable molecules, with an important role for Belgian ports”.

She also states that “the federal government wants to produce hydrogen on the Belgian coast with additional renewable electricity from the North Sea”, referring to the commitment in May 2022 by Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands to increase their offshore wind capacity in the North Sea to 65GW and green hydrogen to 20GW by 2030.

The update to the strategy provided several new details on possible sources of green hydrogen and its derivatives:

  • “The North sea route” is described as a future gigantic power station for Europe, in need of interconnected pipelines.

“While until recently most eyes were on offshore electrical networks, an offshore hydrogen network appears to be a complementary and realistic solution”, the document states.

The government is launching a study to find out how electricity and hydrogen networks in the North Sea can complement each other, paying particular attention to the UK and Norway, to which Belgium already has gas interconnectors.

  • “The southern route” is what Belgium labels piped imports from Southern Europe and North Africa. It is called “a promising long-term solution”, but will require more time to establish hydrogen transport networks through Europe.
  • “The shipping route” — via ships from around the world — is expected to be the most competitive solution for importing hydrogen derivatives such as ammonia.

The federal government supports the creation of a Belgian hydrogen council, as a “central point of contact for the international representation of Belgian hydrogen actors and provide recommendations to the various Belgian governments regarding hydrogen”.

The national administration is also launching a new €10m grant scheme for projects on research, development and demonstrations of technologies and infrastructure that can contribute to the import of hydrogen to Belgium, with a view to injecting hydrogen into a hydrogen transport network.

A call for projects has been announced, for schemes that must be completed by 31 July 2026.