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German energy agency RWE has signed an settlement with Neptune Vitality to develop a inexperienced hydrogen demonstration venture within the Dutch North Sea, concentrating on an electrolyzer capability of 300 to 500 megawatts.
In a press release Tuesday, the companies mentioned the H2opZee venture could be developed in two phases. The primary will middle on a feasibility examine whereas the second will concentrate on implementation. The aim is for the venture to be developed earlier than 2030.
“Hydrogen is a gamechanger within the decarbonisation of energy-intensive sectors, and H2opZee is among the many world’s first initiatives of this sort and scale,” Sven Utermöhlen, RWE Renewables’ CEO for offshore wind, mentioned.
Hydrogen has a various vary of functions and will be deployed in a variety of industries. It may be produced in quite a lot of methods. One technique contains utilizing electrolysis, with an electrical present splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen.
If the electrical energy used on this course of comes from a renewable supply comparable to wind or photo voltaic then some name it inexperienced or renewable hydrogen.
The businesses mentioned H2opZee would produce inexperienced hydrogen utilizing offshore wind, with an present pipeline used to funnel the hydrogen to shore. The pipeline’s capability ranges between 10 to 12 gigawatts, the businesses mentioned.
“The vitality transition will be sooner, cheaper and cleaner if we combine present gasoline infrastructure into new methods,” Lex de Groot, who’s managing director of Neptune Vitality within the Netherlands, mentioned.
“This infrastructure is technically appropriate. In consequence … no new pipeline at sea is required and no new landfall must be made by means of the coastal space.”
The notion of utilizing present infrastructure to move hydrogen is just not new. Final July, the CEO of vitality infrastructure agency Snam outlined a imaginative and prescient for the way forward for hydrogen, saying the “beauty” of it was that it could be easily stored and transported.
Talking to CNBC’s “Squawk Field Europe,” Snam CEO Marco Alverà spoke about how present methods could be used to facilitate the supply of hydrogen produced utilizing renewable sources in addition to biofuels.
“Proper now, should you flip in your heater in Italy the gasoline is flowing from Russia, all the best way from Siberia, in pipelines,” he mentioned.
“Tomorrow, we can have hydrogen produced in North Africa, within the North Sea, with photo voltaic and wind assets,” Alverà mentioned. “And that hydrogen can journey by means of the present pipeline.”
Whereas there may be pleasure in some quarters about inexperienced hydrogen’s potential, the overwhelming majority of hydrogen technology is at the moment primarily based on fossil fuels.
Just lately, some enterprise leaders have spoken of the problems they felt have been dealing with the rising inexperienced hydrogen sector. In Oct. 2021, for instance, the CEO of Siemens Energy instructed CNBC there was “no commercial case” for it at this second in time.
The European Fee has laid out plans to put in 40 GW of renewable hydrogen electrolyzer capability within the European Union by the yr 2030.