Page 11 - Energize March 2022

NEWS

Offshore wind seen as perfect fit for

green hydrogen

euters reports that electrical power majority is produced using fossil fuels
generated from offshore wind farms Scotland has extensive oil and gas infrastructure and a rapidly expanding offshore wind
Ris expected to grow exponentially in industry, making it a perfect location for large-scale green hydrogen production.
the next few years and this expansion may The country has an estimated 19 000 km of coastline along the North Sea and the
be a key driver in helping to establish a Atlantic Ocean and, using the definition of the ‘Scottish zone’ set in 1998, commands almost
green hydrogen economy. 500 000 km of sea, nearly six times larger than Scotland itself.
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Offshore wind capacity in parts Installed hydrogen production capacity targets are 5GW by 2030 – meeting the British
of Europe is soon expected to exceed government’s target for the whole United Kingdom – and 25 GW by 2045, according to the
demand and the curtailed power can country’s draft ‘Hydrogen Action Plan’.
be directed into producing clean, green It is this ambitious expansion that may be needed to make hydrogen a viable fuel at an
hydrogen, while the technology’s acceptable cost.
scalability should bring prices down to “We’re moving toward price parity with onshore wind … because of huge wind turbines
competitive levels. of 12 to 14 MW each. By the time ScotWind developers have begun to enact plans they are
Over 5,5 GW of offshore wind capacity bidding for now, the turbines are going to be 18 to 20 MW. That’s going to reduce the cost
was installed in 2020, almost half of which even further,” says Senior Development Manager at Highlands and Islands Enterprise and
was due to new deployments in China, DeepWind Cluster Manager Paul O’Brien.
followed by 1,5 GW in the Netherlands, For average projects such as offshore, wind-based electrolysis in Central Europe,
and most of the rest in Britain, Belgium renewable hydrogen production costs could decline from US$5,4/kg in 2020 to $2,3/kg
and Germany, bringing the global installed in 2030, with Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) declines having the greatest cost-down
capacity to almost 33 GW from 200 impact, according to the Hydrogen Council and McKinsey & Company report Hydrogen
operating projects, according to the US Insights.
Department of Energy (DOE) figures. By 2030, offshore wind turbines are expected to soar to over 250 m (just 74 m shorter
This growth is expected to accelerate than the Eiffel Tower) with a capacity of as much as 20 MW each.
over the next decade, with over 23 GW of It is these size increases, via the ScotWind offshore wind lease tender and the ‘Scot2Ger’
projects currently under construction. hydrogen export initiative, which will help fuel Scotland’s hydrogen ambitions.
At the end of 2020, the global pipeline “Bigger turbines mean fewer substructures, less cable, less installation time, fewer
for offshore wind energy development machines … so the sheer economies of scale are driving the cost reduction and it’s been
capacity was seen as 307,8 GW, the DOE happening at a pace that nobody expected. Before we thought that 10 MW for a turbine was
says, with the European Commission the largest it would ever get, but I’m not hearing an upper number anymore,” says O’Brien.
expecting the 27-member European Union
to produce at least 240 GW of offshore
wind capacity by 2050.
“With an average annual growth rate
of 18,6% until 2024 and 8,2% up to the end
of the decade, new annual installations are
expected to sail past the milestones of 20
GW in 2025 and 30 GW in 2030,” according
to the Global Wind Energy Council in its
2020 offshore wind report.
This is good news for those betting
on the creation of a significant hydrogen
economy, where the colourless gas is
made ‘green’ when it is manufactured
from renewably sourced electricity.
Green hydrogen will need similar
order-of-magnitude increases in
production from today, where only 2%
of hydrogen produced worldwide can be
designated as low carbon, while the vast

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