Norway-headquartered Deep Wind Offshore has entered into a collaboration with Hydepoint to explore offshore hydrogen production from offshore wind.

EU has set a target of 200 million tonnes of hydrogen produced from renewable energy by 2030. The European Commission launched an action plan that could ensure growth in wind power to reach its climate goals. According to the plan, there must be installed a total of 500 GW of offshore and onshore wind power by 2030.

According to the partners, electricity production from offshore wind will become a significant source of renewable energy, but current grids are not prepared to receive either the large amounts of power or the peaks expected from renewable energy.

Offshore hydrogen production from offshore wind could reduce the need for investments in grids, as well as provide a renewable product that can be delivered to demand centres further afield.

“Exploring the best possible integration of offshore wind and -hydrogen in an early project development phase can further optimize the value of the combined asset and reduce dependency on upgrades to existing infrastructure,” said Elin Steinsland, CEO of Hydepoint.

“In addition, the time it takes to start production of green hydrogen offshore can be significantly reduced by planning the wind farm and the hydrogen processing plant in parallel.”

Hydepoint is a product and technology company, owned by Kongsberg, Moreld and Arendals Fossekompani, for offshore hydrogen production. The company has proprietary designs for offshore units housing a substation and hydrogen production unit, from smaller bottom fixed units up to 500 MW bottom fixed and floating units.

Deep Wind Offshore, owned by Knutsen Gruppen, Haugaland Kraft, Sunnhordland Kraftlag, and Octopus Energy, is an international developer and owner of offshore wind projects, with headquarters in Haugesund.

The company has a pipeline of more than than 10 GW, including 2 GW under exclusive development in South Korea. At the end of last year, Deep Wind Offshore also submitted a permit application for the construction and operation of a wind farm offshore Sweden which could feature a maximum of 70 wind turbines.

“By producing hydrogen offshore close to the wind farms, the wind farms can be built further out to sea, to avoid conflicted areas, and at the same time increase utilization and profitability. This is relevant in several of our current and coming markets, including Sweden,” said Knut Vassbotn, CEO of Deep Wind Offshore.