Grid operator suggests connecting German offshore wind parks to Dutch grid

It could be cheaper to connect future German North Sea wind parks to the Dutch power grid rather than running the cables to, and through, Germany, Dutch-German transmission grid operator TenneT suggests in its half-year report published on Wednesday. Because there is a grid connection point directly on the Dutch coast at the port of Eemshaven, 100 kilometres of underground cables and 200 million euros could be saved and bottlenecks in the German grid bypassed, TenneT says.
TenneT also makes a case for the use of “green hydrogen” in a future integrated energy system. Hydrogen generated from renewable power could be used to store energy and decarbonise the transport sector. According to TenneT, production capacity for hydrogen could grow tenfold every five years with investment costs falling by 40 percent over the same period. TenneT CEO Mel Kroon suggested that a tender system similar to the one for offshore wind energy could be introduced for the development of “green hydrogen”.

Read the TenneT press release in English here.

For background, see the CLEW dossier on the German power grid here and a factsheet on an integrated energy system here.