In focus: Spotlight on hydrogen valleys, blue economy startups and concepts

As the world faces record-breaking high temperatures, the offshore energy sector is trying to stay on the net-zero course – embracing its extensive role in the energy transition. In this process, the industry is dealing with the following goals: to provide energy that is secure, affordable and lower in carbon.

Let’s kick off things with a hydrogen valley plan.

The North Adriatic Hydrogen Valley (NAHV) project, a transnational project by Slovenia, Croatia and the Italian Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, has received the official green light for its implementation as of September 1, 2023.

Last week, Holding Slovenske Elektrarne (HSE), the leading partner in the project, signed a contract with the Clean Hydrogen Partnership Joint Undertaking on the co-funding, involving €25 million in grants.

The project, which aims to establish a dedicated hydrogen valley, is being developed by a consortium involving 37 organisations: companies, universities, institutes and other public institutions from three counties.

The U.S. Department of Commerce and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have launched the Ocean-Based Climate Resilience Accelerators program, designed to support blue economy startups and concepts.

The program, funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, will foster public-private partnerships to help support small businesses that are developing sustainable technologies geared toward climate resilience to attract capital, mature their technologies and scale their business models for climate impact.

The climate-resilience topics supported by the program include ocean-based renewable energy; coastal and ocean carbon sequestration monitoring and accounting; hazard mitigation and coastal resilience; ecosystems services, including change detection, change analysis and change adaptation and mitigation; and other ocean, coastal and Great Lakes-based climate resilience theme areas as determined by the applicant.

As scorching heatwaves engulf the globe, climate change concerns gain prominence, urging the world to make good on its low-carbon and green energy aspirations by accelerating the buildout of a sustainable energy mix.

Multiple sources of supply vie for attention in the journey to net-zero, with renewables being crown jewels while boosting energy efficiency, nuclear, and hydrogen, along with ways to cut emissions from oil and gas remain fateful sidekicks of this energy transition quest.

Aside from the consequences associated with agriculture and human lives, extreme heat also has a major impact on global energy systems due to the surges in demand for electricity, which could result in a vicious cycle of increased greenhouse gas emissions that in turn make the world even hotter.

Bearing this in mind, policymakers are engaging in a race to make global energy systems more sustainable, however, more investment in energy efficiency is also crucial at this time. This was also discussed at the fourth and last Energy Transitions Working Group Meeting, held under India’s G20 presidency and concluded in Goa last week.

The Council of the European Union has adopted the final rules on climate-neutral shipping as proposed in the FuelEU Maritime as a key part of the EU’s Fit for 55 package.

The final hurdle was cleared on Tuesday putting virtually all pieces of the puzzle for regulating shipping’s climate impact into place after two years of intense negotiations. 

This means that the key requirements for the climate footprint of fuels have been adopted together with the regulations for shore power in ports.

The main objective of the FuelEU maritime initiative is to increase the demand for and consistent use of renewable and low-carbon fuels and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from the shipping sector, while ensuring the smooth operation of maritime traffic and avoiding distortions in the internal market.

The Irish government has approved a new policy statement on electricity interconnections which will see Ireland explore new interconnection opportunities with Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands, as well as further connections to Great Britain and France.

The National Policy Statement on Electricity Interconnection, approved by the Irish Cabinet on Tuesday, 25 July, outlines how a state-directed approach will ensure integrated forward planning, enabling the necessary infrastructure to unlock significant green energy export opportunities.

The key aspects of the new policy include specifically supporting a further connection to Great Britain by 2030 beyond the completion of the Greenlink interconnector, as well as providing consideration to the second connection with France beyond the Celtic Interconnector, a connection to Spain, a further connection to Great Britain beyond 2030 and a connection to Belgium or the Netherlands.