Germany energy company RWE and UK independent oil and gas producer Neptune Energy have awarded the first technical contracts as part of their joint H2opzee offshore green hydrogen project in the Dutch North Sea.

The 300-500MW electrolyser project, expected to start operating in 2029, aims to bring green hydrogen produced from an offshore windfarm to shore via an existing pipeline.

The companies have selected turbine manufacturer Siemens Gamesa to conceptualise the project’s wind turbine generator system. They have also awarded the offshore platform design and engineering concept contract to Dutch offshore hydrogen specialist H2Sea and the pipeline design deal to Dutch offshore engineering company Enersea. The parties declined to comment on the value of the contracts.

300-500MW – Proposed capacity of electrolyser

“It is good that we are taking the next step with the H2opzee consortium to advance the project. Large-scale production of green hydrogen based on offshore wind is a key solution to decarbonising the industry. A demonstration project such as H2opzee helps us to better understand how this could be put into practice,” says Sven Utermoehlen, CEO of offshore wind at Germany’s RWE Renewables.

Feasibility study

The project developers have awarded the contracts as part of their ongoing feasibility study, which is expected to finish next summer and which will determine whether the partners will subsequently take FID.

Plans to build an offshore windfarm to power the offshore electrolyser are not part of the Dutch government’s announced offshore wind zones, Neptune says. “We are still working on that with the government but as it is uncharted waters a lot is still unclear,” the company adds.

Earlier this year, the government allocated North Sea zones to accommodate around 11GW in offshore wind that will be tendered by 2030. It recently outlined its ambitious long-term offshore wind targets to reach 50GW by 2040 and 70GW by 2050.

The Dutch government is giving financial support to the H2opzee and has earmarked the hydrogen sector as a key contributor to reducing carbon emissions in the traditionally gas-dependent Netherlands. The country is aiming for an installed electrolyser capacity of 4GW by 2030 and wants to reuse its 136,000km network of existing gas pipelines to transport hydrogen in future. With an annual production of 9mn m³, the Netherlands is already Europe’s second-largest hydrogen producer, but all of it is generated using fossil fuels.

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Author: Karolin Schaps