The government of the Netherlands said this week that it would invest €750m over the next 10 years to develop a national hydrogen transport network.

Rob Jetten, the Dutch minister for climate and energy, said the government would ask gas network operator Gasunie to manage the network, parts of which will use existing gas pipelines.

Jetten said the aim of the plan was to connect major industrial hubs, build storage facilities and interconnectors with neighbouring hydrogen networks.

Han Fennema, the chief executive of Gasunie, commented in a press release: “Gasunie is very positive about the hydrogen plans announced today by Minister Jetten. We believe that hydrogen will play a major role as the energy carrier of the future. We now start the construction of the public hydrogen network in the Netherlands, which will be a great boost for the transition towards a more sustainable energy system.”

Gasunie is half owned by the Dutch government, with the remainder split between Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobile.

The Reuters News Agency comments that the government had been discussing the idea of a hydrogen transportation network for years, “but concrete steps towards building it have accelerated in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”.

Jetten plan includes making use of part of the 20GW worth of wind farms planned or under construction in the Dutch North Sea by 2030 to produce hydrogen. He said the plan was to devote 500MW to hydrogen by 2025 and 3.5GW by 2030.