Netherlands funds PosHYdon’s offshore wind to green hydrogen project
Offshore green hydrogen production supports developing large-scale offshore wind farms, as wind energy can be converted to green hydrogen and transported using the existing gas infrastructure.
The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) has awarded a subsidy of € 3.6 million to the PosHYdon project.
PosHYdon, the world’s first offshore green hydrogen pilot on a working platform, will use the subsidy to start all activities for this pilot in combination with the funding from the consortium partners.
PosHYdon consortium consists of Nel Hydrogen, InVesta, Hatenboer, IV-Offshore & Energy and Emerson Automation Solutions. Nexstep, TNO, Neptune Energy, Gasunie, Noordgastransport, Nogat, Deme Offshore, Taqa and Eneco joined this group last year already.
The pilot project would be developed at Neptune Energy’s Q13a-A platform, with an installation of a 1 MW electrolyser which would produce around 400 kg/day of green hydrogen. The Q13a-A is the first fully electrified platform in the Dutch North Sea, situated about 13 km off the coast of Scheveningen. Q13a-A platform is the partnership of Neptune Energy (operator and 50%), EBN BV (40%) and Taqa Offshore Bv (10%).
PosHYdon will validate the integration of three energy systems in the Dutch North Sea: offshore wind, offshore gas and offshore hydrogen. Electricity produced by offshore wind turbines will be used to power the hydrogen plant on the platform, converting seawater into demineralised water, then into hydrogen via electrolysis. The green hydrogen will be mixed with the gas and transported via the existing gas pipeline to the coast.
The project will gain experience in integrating working energy systems at sea and hydrogen production in an offshore environment. It will also test the efficiency of an electrolyser with a variable supply from offshore wind. The project will help the partners to learn about the costs for offshore installation and maintenance.
René Peters, Business Director Gas Technologies TNO, said, “PosHYdon is the ultimate example of system integration in the North Sea.”
Jacqueline Vaessen, MD of Nexstep, said, “Together with a number of operators and TNO, this idea arose about two years ago from a brainstorming session of the ‘Re-purpose’ working group within Nexstep.”
