Germans seek expedience on offshore wind to hydrogen projects

Representatives from the German offshore wind industry are urging the government to issue tenders for additional offshore wind areas needed to produce green hydrogen as quickly as possible.

Germany’s National Hydrogen Strategy (NWS) opens up the opportunity to use about 3 GW of offshore wind energy to produce green hydrogen, thus additional areas must be pre-investigated and put out to tender as quickly as possible, BWE, BWO, VDMA, WAB and the German Offshore Wind Energy Foundation stated.

In the preliminary draft of the area development plan, the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) named the first two sites for Power-to-X in the North Sea and Baltic Sea, for which the award procedure should begin in 2021.

“Not least because of the long planning time of offshore wind farms, we have long warned that an expansion gap is imminent. We are now in the middle of it. The challenge now is to keep this expansion gap as small as possible and to strengthen the domestic market for offshore wind energy sustainably and permanently,” the organizations said.

“In addition to anchoring the long-term goals in law, this also includes putting the available areas out to tender as quickly as possible and choosing an economically efficient remuneration system for future offshore wind projects.”

They claim that the basis for this should be created quickly after the summer break and in dialogue with the industry.

According to the associations, the potential in the North and Baltic Seas is not yet exhausted and available areas and free grid capacities of 1,860 MW could be allocated at short notice.

“If the right course is set now, these will not only make a significant contribution to the sustainable economic recovery after the Corona crisis, but will also contribute greatly to achieving the climate targets and security of supply during the energy transition,” it was concluded.