At Groningen Airport Eelde Europe's first 'Hydrogen Valley Airport' will be developed

The world's first hydrogen-powered commercial aircraft are expected to enter the market only by 2035. Yet already today Groningen Airport Eelde is developing a full-scale hydrogen ecosystem with its ambitious “Hydrogen Valley Airport” strategy. Could you please tell us more about your strategy and the planned timeline? 

At GRQ, Europe’s first ‘Hydrogen Valley Airport’ will be developed. The full-scale hydrogen ecosystem will involve production of green hydrogen, distribution, and utilisation. The starting point is its existing 22MW solar park, the largest airside solar field in operation at any operative commercial airport, with 63,000 solar panels, operational since February 2020. The airport is located in Europe’s first Hydrogen Valley, which is being built by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH-JU) and is supported by the HEAVENN project of the New Energy Coalition and a €9 billion hydrogen regional investment agenda. The four-to five-year project includes research, development and realisation of an electrolyser by utilising the solar park, a hydrogen refuelling station that serves both land- and airside, hydrogen power ground service equipment and both gaseous and liquid H2 storage and distribution. 

One of the main challenges is funding. That is why we build coalitions of the willing with primarily regional partners, that include companies from the energy and aviation sectors, educational institutions and (regional) governments. Whilst working together, we are better able to attract funding in the form of subsidies and investments. We as an airport offer our highly secure premises as a scalable testbed and demonstration location and learned that this has a high value for our partners. Legislation forms another challenge; it is for example complex to certify ground service equipment (GSE) that runs on hydrogen as this is a very new technology applied in an airport environment. Our approach here is to connect to industry partners and OEMs to address the issue together and try to obtain some funding to get us through certification processes.

We would advise other airports to build consortia. Connect to companies, educational and governmental institutions. Preferably regional partners that benefit from each other. We learned for example that companies value their regional airport as a testbed and demonstration location but also for its high public visibility (PR value). We work a lot with SME’s who often have short decision-making processes, just like ourselves. Thus, avoiding unnecessary lead time delays. Last but not least, and that is what we did, build your own team to lead the airport to a more sustainable future. A hands-on team that consists of people with knowledge of (renewable) energies, project management, networking and -of course- aviation! 

Besides (project) funding to boost innovation, the industry would benefit from simplified and clear legislation, e.g. in terms of certification. We also need the continuous cooperation of the energy sector. Airports will need a sufficient and uninterrupted, timely supply of green electricity, (liquid and gaseous) green hydrogen and SAFs in order to serve future aircraft. At the right price level. 

Cooperate, act and support. Cooperate in consortia that are able to invest in and/or subsidize projects that, starting with research activities, always lead to concrete outputs, tangible, visible and useable. Prioritize to be able to speed up certification processes to allow new technologies to enter the market far more quickly than currently possible.