German wind association BWO has called for tenders for green hydrogen production using offshore electrolysers.
The German Offshore Wind Energy Act, WindSeeG was revised in 2022 to give the Climate Ministry the power to regulate the process.
The department carried out a consultation on offshore green hydrogen production in January.
The move has not yet led to concrete proposals for regulation.
The association said there was no information as to when this work would begin.
The maritime and hydrographic agency (BSH) in January proposed an area in the North Sea could be used for offshore green hydrogen production called SEN-1.
The association wants a tender for the proposed area as well as for additional areas, aligned with the national aim to action 500MW of green hydrogen annually from 2023-2028.
It also wants the government to establish transmission fee rates for hydrogen pipelines.
It sees these actions as necessary to allow offshore electrolysis to develop faster.
BWO senior manager of policy and regulation Manuel Battaglia said: “No draft regulation currently exists for the auction design for SEN-1 sites, and we are arguing for this auction design to be consulted with the stakeholders as soon as possible so that the tenders can begin in the first half of 2024.
“SEN-1 is already included in the current site development plan, but the tenders have not yet taken place because the ministry still needs to specify the auction design.
“We are also awaiting the ministry’s official decision on whether the SEN-1 space will be tendered as a whole or will be divided in two or three subareas.
“The industry as a whole … is arguing that the currently planned site of 102 square kilometers is much too big to be tendered out as a single site.
“Our association is striving to divide the space in two or three subareas in order to allow for more actor diversity.”