Go Hydrogen is being held today and tomorrow in Antwerp, a strategic port city for hydrogen-related trade in Europe. As a partner of the second edition of the event, Hydrogen Today spoke to the Managing Director of Go Hydrogen: Evnika Polovinkina. Below, you can read the transcript of the interview conducted by Laurent Meillaud.
During two days you are welcoming some speakers and attendees for the event go hydrogen in Antwerp. First of all why did you choose to search a location in Belgium?
One of the reasons is because one of our partners is the port of Antwerp. The idea of most of our events is to combine theoretical parts with practical parts, not only presentations and discussions but actually see in the real world what the companies do. So that’s why we have decided the site visit to the port of Antwerp and to the hydrogen refuelling station. People can then see and ask questions from the people who are already doing something rather than theoretical talks and plans.
That would be one of the reasons. Another one is that the Benelux region is very strong in their maritime infrastructure. That’s an important part of developing the hydrogen economy. That would be another reason. Of course, quite a lot of things are happening in Netherlands as well if we talk about the hydrogen projects. So that would be the reasons why we’re here. But the event is about Europe. We have speakers not only from the Benelux region but of course from the UK, where there was just in December a new legislation regarding hydrogen projects. And, of course, some projects will be presented from the South of Europe as well.
Antwerp may be one of the main harbours in Europe. If we think about hydrogen imports, it’s a strategic place.
Exactly. Obviously, Belgium is thinking that one day they wouldn’t be able to produce as much hydrogen as they need. That’s why hydrogen imports will be very important for them. We have quite a few Belgian companies participating because of that, just waiting to see where the supply will come from. The infrastructure is a big topic of the event for the next two days.
It’s the second edition. What is specific to this 2024 edition?
The way we work is that it’s not the “our idea” is how we want to put the event but rather than speaking to the people who we know from the industry who already participate in the event. One of the things is that our attendees were telling us is that talking about the real projects and the real challenges. Because there’s quite a lot of things happening regarding press releases and promises.
Not only words and presentations.
Exactly that’s why there will be a session on the projects which have already been implemented and what challenges they face in terms of financing. That’s a big problem of course. There’re so many projects announced but not that many go ahead. That’s probably the difference. We’re very much focused on the real issues and how the cost can go down because recently the cost of the projects actually went up quite a lot.
There’s a little bit of contradiction there. And of course the off-takers, that’s a big part as well. Not only producers but actually where the demand come from and that dialogue between the producers and the off-takers.
What can we say about your organisation specialising in energy?
We’ve been running conferences for the last 10 years and we focus specifically on the energy sector. We started as a traditional oil and gas event. As always.
I would say five years ago our clients were talking more and more about sustainability topics that’s why we launched several events. One of them is Go Net Zero Energy where we talk about renewables and carbon capture. Then we could see that there is actual opportunity for the hydrogen event. We do Go Circular which is on the recycling. These are the main topics which we’re focusing on. It’s an exciting area to work in. A lot of things happing.
Do you want to learn more about Go Hydrogen? Then our latest articles about the event should interest you. You can access all of our articles written about Go Hydrogen here.
