The potential of hydrogen as a clean fuel is enormous. Hydrogen (or H2) is inexhaustible and its use does not cause harmful emissions. The Dutch government firmly believes that hydrogen will be one of the main clean fuels of the future. They are fully committed to making hydrogen available and affordable through the design, construction, financing, maintenance and operation of refuelling stations as part of the clean fuels offer. In the Netherlands, several operators already have hydrogen filling stations open to the public.

The Dutch government has high ambitions for hydrogen. The National Hydrogen Programme shows that the government wants to bet on hydrogen as the energy system of the future.

Oil and gas companies have long provided the fuels that form the basis of today's energy system, but in a context of persistently high global emissions, they are under increasing pressure to provide solutions to climate change. While these may seem like incompatible options, most companies will seek to do both. In practice, the two are closely interlinked, as most of the financial resources for diversified spending will, at least initially, come from traditional investments in oil and gas supply. While companies' approaches to the energy transition vary, capital spending on clean energy is seeing an increase in overall investment. Companies - especially large European ones - are trying to accelerate their transition to renewables by increasing the supply of hydrogen at Dutch grid stations.

And new companies are also joining the hydrogen supply in the Netherlands, with a new hydrogen supply agreement signed to support some 33,000 fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) in the Netherlands. HyGear, a wholly owned subsidiary of Xebec Adsorption, recently announced the signing of a supply agreement for the generation and delivery of 130,000 kg of hydrogen to a hydrogen filling station in the country. The hydrogen supplied by HyGear under the agreement will be produced at the company's decentralised hydrogen production facility in Arnhem, the Netherlands, for a period of one and a half years.

There are 15 hydrogen filling stations open to the public in the Netherlands.