Mott MacDonald wins Gasunie contract to assess feasibility of an offshore hydrogen network in the North Sea

The global engineering, management, and development consultancy will assess the feasibility of a green hydrogen infrastructure in the Dutch North Sea as part of decarbonisation efforts in Europe.

Mott MacDonald has secured the first lot on Gasunie's recent engineering services framework. Gasunie manages and maintains the infrastructure for large-scale transport and storage of gas in the Netherlands and the northern part of Germany.

The contract involves a 12-month programme of work to assess the technical and economic feasibility of offshore and onshore hydrogen compressor infrastructure.

The project is part of Gasunie's vision to unlock the North Sea as a green power source and to produce enough wind energy and green hydrogen to supply more than half of Europe with carbon-neutral energy by 2050. The project is also aligned with the North Sea Wind Power Hub (NSWPH) concept, which Mott MacDonald has been supporting since 2021.

The wider feasibility assessment will address the technical, economic, regulatory, policy, safety and organisational aspects of an offshore hydrogen network in the Dutch North Sea. The network will enable the transport and storage of green hydrogen produced from offshore wind farms, as well as the integration with the existing natural gas infrastructure.

Nick Roberts, Mott MacDonald’s business development manager for thermal transition, said: " This appointment builds on our relationship working together on the North Sea Wind Power Hub (NSWPH) and ongoing NortH2 projects, and we look forward to continuing to support Gasunie to meet the clean energy demands of the future, which are critical to meeting net zero carbon ambitions. This pioneering project to decarbonise Europe will greatly contribute towards the aim of increasing the Dutch North Sea's energy production to 70GW by 2050 and the ultimate goal of climate neutrality within the next 30 years”.