In focus: Offshore renewables and green hydrogen set to herald in a new energy paradigm

The global energy sector’s transition from fossil-based systems of energy production to renewable energy sources is proving to be an increasingly challenging goal to attain, especially in the context of current energy security and supply setbacks. However, offshore renewable energies – mainly offshore wind and marine energy – backed up with innovation in green hydrogen production, stand to significantly accelerate the energy paradigm shift awaited worldwide.

Covering 70% of the planet’s surface, oceans are a source of abundant renewable energy potential, which in theory, could provide more than double of the world’s current electricity demand.

Therefore, energy harnessed from oceans through offshore renewables – which include offshore wind, ocean energy, and floating solar technologies – has always been considered an important piece of the energy transition puzzle.

The importance of offshore renewables for the future net-zero energy mix has only been reaffirmed by the ‘explosion’ of green hydrogen developments and commitments across the world – seen by many as the backbone of energy transition – as the ‘clean fuel of the future’ can be produced using these renewable energy sources.

This is most evident in the recent commitments made by Dutch and Canadian governments, who have both set significant offshore wind targets, while also stating their intention to use offshore wind for green hydrogen production.

Namely, the Netherlands has this week set a target of 70GW of offshore wind energy until 2050, based on the assumption that 5GW could be installed by 2040.

In addition to electricity generation, the Dutch government also plans for some of the country’s offshore wind capacity to be used for large-scale green hydrogen production in the North Sea.

Rob Jetten, the minister for climate and energy of the Netherlands, said: “70 gigawatts of power is very ambitious and in the coming years we will look at exactly how many gigawatts are needed. This gives us the opportunity to sustainably electrify a large part of the Netherlands and to generate green hydrogen for industry, for example.”

Similarly, the Canadian Province of Nova Scotia made the first concrete move toward offshore wind development in the country by committing to auction off 5GW of offshore wind energy by 2030, with an ultimate aim to support green hydrogen production.

The announcement from the Nova Scotia government comes shortly after Canada and Germany signed a joint declaration of intent to establish the Canada-Germany Hydrogen Alliance, an agreement set to enable Canada export green hydrogen to Germany by 2025.

The offshore renewables-green hydrogen link has also dominated the developments in France this week, with the country launching its first commercial-scale offshore wind farm and the world’s first offshore green hydrogen production platform.

The offshore hydrogen production platform, developed by Lhyfe, will enable the generation of renewable hydrogen at sea for the first time ever.

The unit was installed on the Wavegem wave energy platform, developed by Geps Techno, and will be supplied with electricity from BW Ideol’s landmark floating offshore wind turbine Floatgen, installed at the test site off the coast of Le Croisic in France.

Aside from green hydrogen production, offshore renewables are also expected to play an increasingly important role in the decarbonization of oil, gas, and subsea assets.

Offshore wind is once again at the forefront of these initiatives, as seen in the latest partnership between Norwegian company Vårgrønn and Scottish-based Flotation Energy, which have teamed up to use offshore wind to help with the decarbonization of oil and gas industry in Scotland.

Generating renewable energy from offshore wind farms, the partners will work on the electrification and decarbonization of offshore oil and gas installations in the North Sea, while excess power will be made available for UK customers.

Somewhat similar initiative has been unveiled this week by tripartite agreement between Baker Hughes, Mocean Energy, and Verlume, who have committed to jointly identify and explore opportunities for integrated wave energy, energy storage and power delivery solutions to facilitate the electrification of subsea assets as well as the utilization of renewable energy within harsh, deep-sea environments.

 “The signing of this strategic MoU demonstrates Baker Hughes commitment to support our customers in finding clean energy technology solutions to decarbonize their offshore assets.

“Being a subsea integrator in this partnership with Mocean Energy and Verlume, we believe we can deliver a turn-key solution that meets the expectations of our customers and regulatory bodies,” said Romain Chambault, vice president services & offshore Europe at Baker Hughes.

Wave energy for oil and gas platform electrification has also been explored by Ocean Harvesting Technologies and Lundin Energy Norway in joint case study, which found wave power to be highly competitive with offshore wind power, both in terms of levelized cost of energy and providing a more stable power supply that requires only half as much power balancing.

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