The UK Government has awarded Vattenfall £9.3 million pounds ($11.5 million) in innovation funding to develop the world’s first hydrogen-producing offshore wind turbine, with the electrolyzer sited directly onto an existing operational turbine.
The pilot project at Vattenfall’s Offshore Wind Farm in Aberdeen Bay will have an output of 8 MW. It will be able to produce enough hydrogen every day to power a hydrogen bus to travel 24,000 kilometers, Vattenfall said. The hydrogen will be piped to shore at Aberdeen Harbor.
"We are very happy with the Government funding. Placing hydrogen electrolyzers on offshore wind turbines is likely to be the quickest and cheapest way of providing fossil-free hydrogen at scale, said Danielle Lane, UK Country Manager for Vattenfall.
The project – called ‘Hydrogen Turbine 1 (HT1)’ - aims to be the first project in the world to test the full integration of hydrogen production with an offshore wind turbine. HT1 will also map out development and consent processes for large-scale hydrogen projects co-located with offshore wind farms to speed up future development, Vattenfall said.
"The availability of large quantities of fossil-free hydrogen will play a key role in the decarbonization of heavy industry (predominantly in steel, chemicals, and fertilizer production as well as refining), as well as heavy transport," Vattenfall added.
According to Vattenfall, work on the project will start right away, with the goal of the first production as early as 2025.
The funding was granted by the UK Government's Net Zero Innovation Portfolio Low Carbon Hydrogen Supply 2 fund.
Worth noting, Vattenfall’s Aberdeen Bay Offshore Wind Farm, where the hydrogen-producing turbine will be tested, also known as the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre is a test and demonstration site for offshore wind innovation and is also home to a 3 million Euro Scientific Programme.
Danielle Lane, UK Country Manager for Vattenfall said: “Placing hydrogen electrolyzers on offshore wind turbines is likely to be the quickest and cheapest way of providing fossil-free hydrogen at the scale needed to reduce emissions from heavy industries such as steel and chemicals.
“There’s a lot of talk about hydrogen’s potential uses, but we need to urgently map out the development and delivery processes so we can quickly get to the stage where we can produce large quantities of fossil-free hydrogen cost-effectively. The HT1 project will focus on overcoming those barriers, in the real-world environment of an operational offshore wind farm.”
Bob Sanguinetti, Chief Executive for the Port of Aberdeen, said: "This is a great development for the production and onshore use of green hydrogen and speaks volumes for the ingenuity and skills which Aberdeen has on its doorstep. This project will reinforce Aberdeen’s reputation as a leader for clean hydrogen production and will set the tone for the development of these sectors."
“The Port of Aberdeen is in a prominent position for opportunities such as this. Our port infrastructure and facilities, combined with our strategic proximity to North Sea assets and knowledgeable supply chain, make us a port of choice for the future, ready to lead with the country’s ambitious net zero targets. We look forward to working with Vattenfall on this exciting project.”
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