King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands travelled to Rotterdam to visit its port, the country’s biggest point of entrance for energy and the focus of a massive effort to transition the Netherlands to green hydrogen.
The visit took place on Tuesday, 12 April, and, besides a visit to energy import infrastructure, it also included a cruise through Maasvlakte, a massive civil engineering project that determined the westward expansion of the Rotterdam port.
During the cruise, His Majesty spoke with port authorities and representatives from various energy companies, all of whom explained to him the challenges they faced as they try to transition to more sustainable energy sources.
Currently, the Rotterdam port receives every year about three times more energy than it consumes, meaning that a green transition is possible. However, infrastructure seems to still be the biggest barrier to that full transition becoming a reality.
Back at the harbour, the King was given a tour of the Neste facility, where he was met by the Vice President of the group managing it to talk about the importance of hydrogen production in the transition towards clean energy and energy self-sufficiency.
The theme of energy production has been put at the forefront by the Ukrainian crisis, with Europe being still too reliant on imports of Russian gas to actually commit to a full energy import embargo. This has made Europe vulnerable to potential reprisals from Russia, should the Eastern European country decide to cut off exports of energy to the European Union as a form of revenge for what is sees as excessive support of Ukraine.
However, the theme is not new in King Willem-Alexander’s agenda. Back in 2019, he opened the test installation Hystock, a facility to test storage solutions for energy produced with green hydrogen, and in 2021, he spoke at the Wind Meets Gas Conference, making it clear that the Netherlands’ transition to green energy is a key priority for the country.
