Deep Wind Offshore has entered into a collaboration with Hydepoint to explore offshore hydrogen production from offshore wind.
The former is developing offshore wind parks worldwide, so far with projects in Norway, Sweden, and South Korea.
HydePoint is a product and technology company specialising in offshore hydrogen production and provides solutions that can integrate hydrogen production with offshore wind parks.
Knut Vassbotn, chief executive in Deep Wind Offshore, said: “Hydrogen will be an essential part of the energy mix towards net zero.
“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. Hydepoint has an exciting technology, and we look forward to together explore opportunities.”
Offshore hydrogen production from offshore wind will reduce the need for investments in grids, as well as providing a renewable product that can be delivered to demand centres further afield, according to Deep Wind Offshore.
Plans are currently explored for hydrogen export pipelines from Norway, Sweden, and Finland to Germany, and could facilitate offshore hydrogen production close to the windfarms and delivering hydrogen directly into these pipelines.
Elin Steinsland, chief executive of HydePoint said: “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.
“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.”
EU has set a target of 20 million tonnes of hydrogen produced from renewable energy by 2030.