On Tuesday February 14th, visiting Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Mrs. Liesje Schreinemacher, witnessed the first steps towards a strategic energy corridor between The Netherlands and Brazil. In the presence of the Minister, the Dutch consortium Transhydrogen Alliance and its Brazilian partners Casa dos Ventos Energias Renováveis and Comerc Energia signed an MoU outlining their plans to jointly conduct technical studies and follow a phased investment approach, creating a scalable greenhydrogen production line in the northeastern state of Ceará. The project will be located at the Porto do Pecém, which is one of the principal partner ports globally of the Port of Rotterdam.
Unique bundling of capabilities
The strength of this consortium lies in the unique bundling of capabilities by the participating partners. Casa dos Ventos is one of Brazil’s leading producers of renewable electric energy, mostly from onshore wind and solar. It is now actively expanding its portfolio to include offshore wind and hydrogen. Comerc Energia is part of the Comerc Group, which has earned its laurels in power production, transmission, distribution and efficiency enhancement in Brazil. Comerc knows how to get power from here to there efficiently. THA, in turn, provides the best that The Netherlands has to offer in hydrogen production, storage and transportation, having at its disposal decades of experience by the four companies that make up the consortium.
Together, these partners not only bridge between the countries of Brazil and The Netherlands, but they also span across the entire hydrogen value chain, proving once more how together companies can achieve so much more than individually. The result: green energy produced and transported to serve the greening of economies, reduced CO2 emissions and created jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.
Fruitful meeting
The signing ceremony took place at the end of a fruitful meeting between the Dutch delegation led by Minister Liesje Schreinemacher and in the presence of key Brazilian authorities regulating the energy sector like EPE – Empresa de Pesquisa Energética, IBAMA – Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis – Ibama, ANEEL – Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica – ANEEL. Also, ABEEólica – Associação Brasileira de Energia Eólica e Novas Tecnologias , the Dutch ARCADIS and Huisman joined the dialogue.
This broader meeting aimed to showcase the potential of stronger collaboration between Dutch and Brazilian businesses and test the waters for a future G2G collaboration in the global energy transition.