RTV Noord–Friday was the official opening act, yesterday an open day. From now on, Groningen officially has a public hydrogen filling station where anyone can refuel with a hydrogen vehicle.
According to Willem Hazenberg of Hydrogreenn – a party that deals with the hydrogen economy in the north – that is about a hundred drivers of hydrogen cars. In April this year, there were 270 hydrogen cars on registration throughout the Netherlands.
Carl Holthausen, director of Hyzon Holthausen and initiator of the gas station, is excited. ‘There are more and more passenger cars. They are also widely available, from Hyundai or Toyota. I actually compare them to a Tesla. They are cars in the upper middle class, perhaps expensive, but Tesla is also widely sold.’
Available 24 hours a day
However, the public hydrogen station is not only intended for passenger cars. ‘We currently have fifty active business customers who come to refuel here, with whom we already have a deal. They have a truck, van or delivery van and have already gone to another location in Groningen.
The new location was a necessary leap forward. Holthausen: ‘A gas station must be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It must be easily accessible, in a good main location. We have them now. We are on the Bornholmstraat near the ring road. It has been designed in such a way that you can also park here with a truck in addition to your car.’
The location has another asset. ‘We have a super-fast charging station. You can fill a truck with hydrogen just as quickly as you fill a car with diesel. If you compare and express it in electric charging (with a medium-class electric car in the best possible conditions with 150 kWh, ed.), then we charge here with 600 kWh. That’s super fast. You can fill a truck like that in ten minutes.
With the opening of the station, the door is ajar for more customers, Holthausen knows based on customer requests. ‘There are large customers waiting for such a place to refuel, such as a truck that will collect milk from farmers and take it from Marum to Bedum.’
“It was a long way here. We started the whole hydrogen thing about seven years ago, but we succeeded. Now it’s here.’
Source: RTVNoord
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