Perspectives

Rob Kreiter

Director TKI Energy & Industry

1. The mission of the Top Consortium for Knowledge and Innovation Energy and Industry (TKI E&I) is to realize a sustainable and inclusive industry with its partners that operates within the space of climate and environment. How do you achieve this? What results did you realize so far?

Innovation is cooperation. You do not want to re-invent the wheel everywhere and we have to make speed up to meet the goals of the Climate Agreement. TKI E&I brings parties together that want to make industry more sustainable. Together we develop innovation programs. This means that we are guiding with an ambitious innovation agenda but the implementation lies with the industry itself. The Climate Agreement increases the urgency for companies to reduce CO2 emissions. More and more companies are for example working on circular plastics. A number of innovation projects which we have been preparing for a few years, have now gained momentum. Think of green hydrogen production for the industry on a Gigawatt scale, with attention for infrastructure and the value chain of green and blue hydrogen. A topic such as heat integration, with heat pumps and residual heat utilization, is now also starting to result in demonstration projects and investments. Recently we have been working with industry and the energy sector on the electrification of industry in the coalition ‘Wind meets Industry’. We create a roadmap for electrification and work together in various innovation projects.

2. In May 2021, the advisory report of the Taskforce Infrastructure Climate Agreement Industry (TIKI) was published with recommendations to eliminate bottlenecks in (energy) infrastructure that hinder industry from complying with the agreements in the Climate Agreement in a timely manner. What is the impact of that report? Does it contribute to the acceleration of projects? Who are leading to implement the recommendations?

The TIKI report has mapped out in a structured way where bottlenecks lie between the industry's plans and the possibilities of grid operators. It gives a good overview of problems that need to be solved. With the implementation of the advice the real acceleration must follow, which the government will do with a multi-annual program Infrastructure Energy and Climate (MIEK). At the same time I see that the ambition of a number of companies in the field of direct and indirect electrification is growing. I therefore believe that the sustainability plans of such companies should be leading to decide which infrastructure will be available and where. If the government creates the right preconditions, the investments of the industry can be accelerated and the social costs for the transition will also be lowest.

Rob Kreiter

3. Compared to European industry, is the Dutch industry on course to take accelerated steps in energy transition? Are we behind, in front or is it equal?

A comparison within Europe is not really possible, because our neighbors have a different mix of energy supply and type of energy users. In the Netherlands, for example, we have a great dependence on fossil gas, due to our history of gas production. The industry in the Netherlands is on its way to a sustainable future. Large-scale supply of renewable electricity, increasingly from the North Sea, will be very decisive for the Netherlands, in addition to our gas infrastructure and knowledge position. The big turnaround from a natural gas-driven industry to a much more electric-driven industry is a huge change. If you look closely, you can see that the move towards a sustainable industry has already been irreversibly initiated by many companies in the Netherlands. As TKI, we would like to connect all the dots, so that we learn from each other faster and that Climate Goals will be met.