New York offshore wind 'could power cost-competitive green hydrogen by 2030'

Northeast coast, fixed-bottom turbines and electrolysis onshore offer fastest early route to renewable H2 below $2/kg, says National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Jennifer Granholm, US energy secretary, launched Hydrogen Shot in 2021Photo: Donica Payne/US Department of Energy

Andrew Lee

Acting Editor-in-Chief, Recharge

Published 15 July 2024, 13:03

Fixed-bottom turbines sited off the US Northeast offer the earliest prospect for cost-competitive offshore wind-powered hydrogen production, claims a study by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

A notional wind farm in the New York Bight could produce H₂ at less than $2kg by 2030 under modelling carried out by NREL and published in the Journal of Physics.

“That could make it cost-competitive in some applications compared with conventional carbon-intensive methods of producing hydrogen,” said the researchers, who modelled a variety of offshore wind deployment scenarios in an effort to forecast their levelised cost of hydrogen (LCOH).

The New York Bight project modelled assumes a 1GW fixed-bottom wind farm linked to a proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyser (for which the size isn't stated) operating onshore. The NREL number-crunchers also said the best scenario involves availability of geological storage for the hydrogen produced – for example in underground caverns – and factors in various federal incentives available to wind power and green hydrogen under the US Inflation Reduction Act.

The New York Bight emerged with the most promising early LCOH of four sites modelled by NREL for the study, Potential for large-scale deployment of offshore wind-to-hydrogen systems in the United States.

The researchers also looked at fixed foundation turbines in the Gulf of Mexico, which trailed New York Bight on a 2030 forecast due to its weaker wind speeds.

The researchers additionally assessed the potential of floating wind-to-hydrogen operating in the Gulf of Maine and off California, concluding that floating requires a longer timeframe to cost-competitive green H₂ production due to its generally higher costs compared to fixed foundation.

Onshore electrolysis was NREL's clear favourite for achieving early reductions to LCOH when compared to producing hydrogen at sea on platforms powered by adjacent wind turbines.

“Moving an electrolyser to an offshore platform for bulk energy production presents a novel challenge,” said NREL engineer Kaitlin Brunik, lead author of study.

“To fully harness the electricity generated by offshore wind farms for hydrogen production, substantial electrolysers are needed, along with ancillary equipment for water treatment, hydrogen storage, and transportation.

“Offshore renewable hydrogen production remains uncharted territory, requiring innovative configurations to integrate all the necessary equipment with a wind farm for gigawatt-scale operations.”

Cutting the cost of green H₂ produced using renewable power to $1/kg by the end of 2030 is a central aim of the US’ 'hydrogen shot' programme unveiled in 2021 by energy secretary Jennifer Granholm, representing around an 80% reduction over a decade.