PORT OF ROTTERDAM

 The Port of Rotterdam Authority and the Tasmanian government have conducted a joint study which shows that importing green hydrogen from Tasmania, an island southeast of Australia, has great potential to decarbonise Northern European industry.

The Dutch port and the Tasmanian government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in December 2021 to assess the feasibility of exporting green hydrogen to Rotterdam.

Since then, officials from the Tasmanian government and the Port of Rotterdam Authority have been working together to study the potential supply chain to export green hydrogen to Rotterdam from Tasmania.

One of the conclusions of the study was that the distance from the Tasmanian port of Bell Bay to Rotterdam is not a limiting factor. As explained, the cost of overseas transportation is cancelled out by the relatively low cost of producing green hydrogen in Tasmania where wind and hydroelectric power are abundant.

Opportunities for large-scale offshore wind farms in the Bass Straight, north of Tasmania, were also identified, noting that the country can benefit from the Dutch knowledge and experience in that sector.

The market opportunities were also deemed favourable as demand for green hydrogen is expected to continue to grow rapidly in Northwest Europe for the industry to achieve its CO2 reduction targets.

With the port in Rotterdam becoming an international distribution hub for hydrogen, Tasmanian hydrogen can become part of the supply mix and assist to boost the new green hydrogen economy in the Netherlands and northwestern Europe, the port concluded.