The UK Government has granted Vattenfall GBP 9.3 million in innovation financing from the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio Low Carbon Hydrogen Supply 2 initiative. The money will be used to build the world’s first hydrogen-producing offshore wind turbine, with the electrolyzer mounted directly on a working turbine.
The experimental project, which will be located at Vattenfall’s Offshore Wind Farm in Aberdeen Bay, will have an output of 8 MW and be capable of producing enough hydrogen per day to fuel a hydrogen bus for a journey of 24,000 kilometers. The hydrogen will be pumped to Aberdeen Harbor’s beach.
“We are really pleased with the funds provided by the government.” According to Danielle Lane, UK Country Manager for Vattenfall, installing hydrogen electrolyzers on offshore wind turbines is expected to be the quickest and cheapest solution to provide fossil-free hydrogen at scale.
The ‘Hydrogen Turbine 1 (HT1)’ project aspires to be the world’s first to demonstrate the complete integration of hydrogen production with an offshore wind turbine. To speed up future growth, HT1 will sketch out the development and approval processes for large-scale hydrogen projects co-located with offshore wind farms.
The availability of huge amounts of fossil-free hydrogen will be critical in decarbonizing heavy industries (primarily steel, chemicals, and fertilizer manufacturing, as well as refining) and heavy transportation.
Work will begin immediately, with a first production date set for 2025.
