In focus: More green hydrogen projects gaining ground

Green hydrogen, often seen as a critical enabler of the global transition to sustainable energy and net zero emissions economies, continues to be a major subject of interest for the industry players worldwide.

The recent surge in activity in the market is opening the door for new developments with one of them being the project of Green hydrogen technology developer Lhyfe and shipbuilding company Chantiers de l’Atlantique.

Earlier this week, the two companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the development of offshore hydrogen production platforms. Under the MoU, they will collaborate on offshore renewable hydrogen production projects with on-grid or off-grid wind farms and plan to develop green hydrogen production solutions with a minimum capacity of 100 MW.

Along with offshore development, the French companies also aim to develop a renewable hydrogen fuel chain in port areas.

Another interesting announcement came from Germany’s largest state Bavaria and Scotland who have decided to strengthen ties in the field of green hydrogen and explore the potentials of its transportation.

On 13 June, Hubert Aiwanger, Bavaria’s Economics and Energy Minister, and Ivan McKee, Scottish Minister for Economy, Trade and Tourism, signed a letter of intent in Glasgow to expand their existing business-scientific cooperation with green hydrogen.

In the letter of intent, the parties agreed green hydrogen trading, with Scotland as an exporting country of green energy and Bavaria as an importing country. Together, suitable hydrogen logistics routes including the appropriate infrastructure, certification, identification and support of joint demonstration projects are planned.

Next, Indian steel-making company Tata Steel has entered into an agreement with Dutch firm Van Dam Shipping to develop a hydrogen-powered vessel.

As disclosed, the vessel concept to be developed will have a loading capacity of approximately 5,000 tons and will be the first vessel of this type.

According to Tata Steel, the goal is that this hydrogen-powered ship concept will completely be emission-free, thus saving about 3000 tons of CO2 per year compared to a ship that sails on gas and fuel oil.

Similar to this, the Netherlands-based maritime support provider Acta Marine has signed a contract for the construction of two next-generation, Methanol MDO/HVO powered DP2 Construction Service Operating Vessels (CSOVs) with the Tersan Shipyard in Turkey.

The contract also includes options for two additional CSOVs for delivery at a later stage.

The vessels are primarily aimed at the offshore wind construction market and carry the new SX-216 TWIN-X Stern design from Ulstein Design & Solutions AS that was exclusively designed for and in cooperation with Acta Marine.

Next to mention is the Norwegian cleantech company TECO 2030 who has introduced a hydrogen-powered tanker concept, Hy-Ekotank, together with its partners Ektank AB, Shell Shipping and Maritime, and DNV.

The hydrogen-powered tanker will allow zero emissions at berth, and up to 100% reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during voyage, according to TECO 2030.

This pioneering concept could become a first mover in this maritime shipping segment and contribute to the developments of achieving the ambitious climate targets committed by the European Union.

Moving to the tidal energy sector, Sustainable Marine has officially powered up its next-gen floating tidal energy platform PLAT-I in Nova Scotia, making it the first to deliver in-stream tidal power to the grid in Canada.

The company announced that its system in Grand Passage is ready to begin commercial operation, following the event held on Brier Island in the Bay of Fundy to celebrate the launch.

The 420kW PLAT-I 6.40 platform is deployed at the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE) site as part of the first phase of the Pempa’q In-stream Tidal Energy Project.

Also it is worth to mention that CorPower Ocean has unveiled its first commercial-scale wave energy converter (WEC) – the C4 – alongside the new CorPack concept providing the building blocks for future utility-scale wave energy farms.

The launch, which took place at the Space Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, comes as the wave energy developer prepares to deliver its flagship HiWave-5 Project in northern Portugal, with ocean deployment planned later this year.

Lastly, we’ll close out the week with oil and gas major Shell who plans to increase its share of the supply of oil and gas to the UK and invest £100 million (about $122 million) by 2030 to help 15,000 people get skilled jobs as part of its investment strategy in the UK.

These plans were revealed last week by Shell CEO, Ben van Beurden, during the company’s Powering Progress UK Summit for staff and contractors as two out of five company ambitions for the UK until 2030. These are meant to accelerate Shell’s energy transition in the UK.