Foundation Hydrogen Energy Limburg Stichting Waterstof Energy Limburg (WeL)

The Stichting WeL was created in 2019 by Ger Jonkergouw and Peter Kersten, two retired citizens who felt that hydrogen, an important energy carrier for the energy transition in the Netherlands, was being neglected by businesses, knowledge institutes and the local and regional government in Limburg. They had talks with hydrogen experts in the Netherlands and organized a (table-based) group discussion about “hydrogen in the South of the Netherlands” at a hydrogen stakeholders conference in Groningen. One of the initiators utilised the opportunity of citizens to talk about the importance of hydrogen to the Commission on Mobility and Sustainability of the regional government in Limburg. After this, they had a large number of direct talks with local stakeholders, including the regional government of Limburg, and organized a meeting in July 2020 at the premises of the regional government about the creation of the Hydrogen Coalition Limburg (WCL) as the successor of WeL. The official aim of WeL and the newly created WCL is to speed up the introduction of hydrogen in Limburg in a good way. For this, they proposed a four-pillar approach: 1) the creation of a coherent vision, mission, strategy and policy, 2) fostering an eco-system for hydrogen in Limburg, 3) fostering knowledge generation and dissemination about hydrogen via knowledge institutes, new courses and a hydrogen academy (to be created), and 4) supporting pioneers and the creation of Living Labs for hydrogen. WeL acted as an initiator for those activities, to be realized through WCL with the support of businesses, knowledge institutes and the regional government.