Europe, in its pursuit to realise the energy transition, is looking to hydrogen. It is the ambition that hydrogen production will soon begin to grow in the Netherlands, especially in the western part of the country. We still do not know who will do the work and how workers should be trained. What we do know, however, is that many professionals will have to learn many new skills. This is the problem that the consortium project HELIX-West, to which the NWO has just awarded €4.4 million, will solve.
According to the NWO, the green hydrogen sector will need close to 38,000 trained professionals to function. HELIX-West will propose ways of meeting this urgent need. We will identify critical skills, prepare educational programmes, and propose new labour market structures that will make it easier for workers from adjacent sectors to retrain. Universities and vocational institutions will work alongside four regional innovation hubs: The Green Village at TU Delft, the RDM Campus, Merwe4Havens, and the Duurzaamheidsfabriek.
Green hydrogen and the law
Leonie Reins from Erasmus School of Law will lead the legal part of the project. “When we speak of the green transition, we are inclined to think of technologies and technologists. It is easy to forget that the transition to hydrogen is momentous for law and for those who practice it, too. One of the goals of HELIX-West is to equip the professionals of the future not only with technological skills, but also with a clear understanding of the complex corpus of regulations and standards around the hydrogen economy. We will be investigating on how to tech law best to non-lawyers, by bringing our legal expertise directly into the learning communities which we target”.
The funding was awarded under the NGF GroenvermogenNL call “Towards the Future: Learning Communities as Drivers of the Green Hydrogen Economy”. PlatformZero and Bureau Veritas are co-financiers of the project. It is led by TU Delft, and the consortium partners include The Hague University of Applied Sciences, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, Erasmus University, and the Da Vinci College.
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