The Mitsubishi Corporation will invest $690m in developing the world’s largest green hydrogen plant in the Netherlands, Nikkei Asia reports.

The Japanese industrial conglomerate has teamed up with Dutch renewable energy company Eneco to form Eneco Diamond Hydrogen, which will then manage the construction and operation of the hydrogen plant.

The project is set to break ground in 2026, with hydrogen production scheduled to begin in 2029 using wind farms owned by Eneco.

The company presently has installed capacity of just under 7.4GW. This electricity will be used to produce 80,000 tonnes of the fuel a year – almost 30 times more than anything seen previously.

It is hoped that the economy of scale will reduce the cost of green hydrogen. At present making the gas through water electrolysis using renewables costs around three times more than making it from fossil fuels.

Mitsubishi is hoping that the lessons learned in developing and running the facility will put it in a good position for a further expansion around the world.

The hydrogen produced will be distributed through Eneco’s retail electricity sales network and by pipeline.