Hydrogen projects for UK offshore wind and industry

The ‘Gigastack’ feasibility study, led by ITM Power, will investigate the potential delivery of bulk, lowcost and zero carbon hydrogen in conjunction with the offshore wind industry.

The aim of the project is to identify opportunities to reduce the cost of producing hydrogen through electrolysis, making it a more viable option for the UK’s energy system and for decarbonising industry. The funding has been secured as part of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Hydrogen Supply Competition.

The project will investigate the development of a new 5 MW stack design to reduce material costs and a new, semi-automated manufacturing facility with an electrolyser capacity of up to 1 GW of units per year to increase throughput and decrease labour costs. It will also study deployment of 100 MW and bigger electrolyser systems, using a number of the 5 MW units. 

Achieving net zero carbon emissions by mid-century will need the integration of very high levels of renewables into the wider energy system. Recognising this challenge, the offshore wind industry, through the Offshore Wind Sector Deal, has committed to establishing a task group to identify opportunities to strengthen the role of offshore wind in delivering innovative solutions, such as wind-to-hydrogen.

Anders Christian Nordstrøm, Vice President for Hydrogen at Ørsted, said: ‘Combining renewable power with flexible green hydrogen production is a key part of decarbonising energy systems across Europe and ultimately creating a world that runs entirely on green energy. Hydrogen production by electrolysis is a technology with great potential and this Gigastack project is an important step forward as we look to reduce costs and make green hydrogen a viable solution for the energy transformation.’

Meanwhile, a gin distillery could use hydrogen power to produce sustainable gin as part of a government project to help reduce emissions from industry. The HySpirits project will explore the possibility of converting a craft gin distillery in Orkney, Scotland from using liquid petroleum gas to hydrogen. 

Funding for the pilot project is part of £390mn government funding announced in August to help industry cut emissions. This includes: 

The HySpirits project would use the European Marine Energy Centre’s plant – which uses wind and tidal technology to produce hydrogen – to supply zero carbon heat for the gin distillation process. If successful, this would reduce emissions from the plant by around 86 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. Another pilot project – Dolphyn – aims to mount electrolysers on floating wind turbines to produce hydrogen.

HySpirits and the Dolphyn projects are just two out of 20 companies that have secured a share of government funding to explore how the use of hydrogen can be rolled out across the UK. A further seven projects have been selected to develop their concepts, covering a range of sectors including steel, food and drinks, nickel, cement, and glass.