German utility RWE and UK-based independent oil and gas producer Neptune Energy have agreed to jointly develop a pilot project to demonstrate offshore green hydrogen production in the Dutch North Sea.

The “far offshore” H2 Opzee project envisages the deployment of 300-500MW of electrolyser capacity powered by offshore wind by 2030. The hydrogen would be transported to land via an existing pipeline with a capacity of 10-12GW.

Phase one of the project will be a feasibility study starting in the second quarter of 2022. A second implementation phase would involve a tendering process that has still to be defined, RWE says.

“H2 Opzee is one of the world's first projects of this type and size,” says Sven Utermohlen, CEO of offshore wind at RWE Renewables. “With Neptune Energy at our side, we want to develop the H2 Opzee project to show that offshore wind is the ideal energy source to produce green hydrogen on a large scale. We also want to research together how system integration can best be achieved.”

Government support

H2 Opzee is one of 37 projects shortlisted for the second round of the Dutch government’s National Growth Fund, which has a pot of €20bn ($22.7bn) to support research and development projects across a range of industries by 2026. First-round awards made last year included €338mn to research organisation the Eindhoven Institute for Renewable Energy Systems’ Green Power of the Dutch Economy project, aimed at scaling up the deployment of clean hydrogen in the manufacturing sector.

“We want to develop the H2 Opzee project to show that offshore wind is the ideal energy source to produce green hydrogen on a large scale” Utermohlen, RWE

Neptune is already leading the development of a pilot plant to produce green hydrogen on a working offshore gas platform, with support from the government’s Netherlands Enterprise Agency.

The project, called Poshydon, will be hosted by the Q13a-A platform, which was the first fully electrified platform in the Dutch North Sea.

The pilot plant will convert seawater into demineralised water and then into green hydrogen via a 1MW electrolyser powered by offshore wind. The hydrogen output, expected to be up to 400kg/day, will be blended with natural gas and transported to shore via an existing pipeline.

“With the Poshydon pilot project, we are already among the pioneers in this area of ​​integration and reuse of offshore energy systems. The lessons learned from this project also apply to H2 Opzee,” says Lex de Groot, managing director of Neptune Energy in the Netherlands.

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Author: Stuart Penson