DEME Offshore is joining the PosHYdon pilot, which aims to integrate offshore wind and offshore hydrogen production on a repurposed offshore gas platform.
The project will deploy oil and gas player Neptune Energy’s Q13a platform, the first fully electrified platform in the Dutch North Sea, situated 13km from the coast of Scheveningen.
Neptune Energy Netherlands managing director Lex de Groot said: “Integrating energy systems at sea is a new expertise. DEME’s knowledge for connecting wind farms is crucial. Not only for this pilot, but also to gain experience in the follow-up processes after PosHYdon.
“The expertise DEME has built up worldwide helps us all to scale up from 1MW to 100MW or more after this pilot.”
DEME Offshore will be involved in the conceptual design of a 100MW offshore hydrogen gas production plant for the project as well as the transportation and installation of the electrolyser on Neptune’s platform.
The company is also lead initiatives in the pilot to evaluate the business case for the offshore hydrogen and wind concept.
The pilot is an initiative of Nexstep, a national initiative for reuse and decommissioning and Netherlands knowledge institute TNO.
Other industrial partners on PosHYdon include Gasunie, Eneco, Noordgastransport and NOGAT.
De Groot said PosHYdon is a “crucial step” that paves the way for the further development of offshore wind energy and the conversion to hydrogen in the North Sea.
“This will be particularly interesting for wind farms far away from the coast that will be built after 2030. Especially now that electricity prices are so low, which can slow down the development of offshore wind farms needed to meet climate targets. In addition, the fluctuations of wind at sea can be mitigated by converting this energy at sea into hydrogen,” he added.
DEME Offshore general manager Bart De Poorter added: “DEME has an ongoing focus on new markets and developing opportunities.
“Together with DEME Concessions, we consider the system integration, green hydrogen production and electrification of existing platforms at sea a very interesting market.
“PosHYdon is a starting point. We are very pleased to be able to join the strong partners within the consortium and the collaboration with Neptune Energy, one of the pioneers in this market.”