Dutch King Willem-Alexander visits North Rhine-Westphalia

Picture by Robin Alysha Clemens

His Majesty King Willem-Alexander visited the zero-emission ship MS Antonie on November 14th.

Harm Lenten, an inland shipping company, gave the King a tour on his Waterstof Elektrische Vrachtschip Antonie (WEVA), the world’s first new-build hydrogen-powered inland vessel. This demonstration ship will be used by Harm to demonstrate that hydrogen is a feasible solution for clean and quiet maritime transportation of commodities.

Parallel to the King’s working tour, an economic hydrogen mission took place. The Netherlands and Germany are collaborating to strengthen the hydrogen economy. North Rhine-Westphalia intends to harness hydrogen to create a climate-neutral industrial zone. This creates strategic options for the Netherlands to serve as an import hub and transit country.

During his working visit, the King was also kept up to date on the RH2INE initiative. RH2INE is a public-private network of excellence on hydrogen implementation in corridor transport. The network involves numerous stakeholders, including NPRC, with the goal of accelerating the use of hydrogen in transport on the Rhine.

Speeches were held by Jeannette Baljeu, Deputy of the province of South Holland, Mona Neubaur, Regional Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia,  Femke Brenninkmeijer, CEO of NPRC and Michael Koenig, CEO of Nobian. The importance of collaboration in pursuit of greening transport and expanding and sharing knowhow of the involved parties was underlined in their speeches.

Source:

https://nprc.eu/king-visits-inland-shipping-operator-nprcs-zero-emission-ship/?lang=en

EGTC 18th General Assembly in Maastricht, Limburg

Picture by Erwin van der Linden, Project Officer

The General Assembly Interregional Alliance for the Rhine-Alpine Corridor EGTC took place on November 15th, accompanied by a strategy workshop with the Advisory Board.

Jasper Kuntzelaers, Regional Minister for Culture and Heritage, Mobility and Agriculture opened the event with a speech wherein he emphasiszed the importance of the EGTC for the Rhine Alpine Corridor and called for more collaboration, and to jointly focus on digitilisation and innovation. He also explained the contributions of Limburg and Venlo towards these themes such as the commitment of their ports to reduce emissions by 30% by 2030, their work on clean energy hubs and fuels of tomorrow, and their partnership in the Rhombus Project.

The strategy workshop with advisory board detailed potential priority themes and organisational structures, anticipating options in the light of future corridor mergers, and the EGTC’s potential role in the new, merged Corridor. Extensive discussions and exchanges took place to determine key strategic foci and their implementation, structure, and short- and longterm goals.

The General Assembly, chaired by Jeannette Baljeu, Regional Minister of the Provincie Zuid-Holland, and Dr. Cecilia Braun, Director of the Interregional Alliance for the Rhine-Alpine Corridor EGTC, also presented new projects to members, such as MultiRELOAD.

Thanks to the Provincie Limburg for their hospitality and extensive efforts in hosting this event. And thanks to Supply Chain Valley for giving a tour of the impressive North Limburg logistics hub.

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