The world’s first offshore wind/green hydrogen pilot is to go ahead this year after its project consortium received €9m ($11m) of funding from state-owned development bank Innovation Norway.
It is the first step towards commercialising the group’s Deep Purple concept, which aims to use excess offshore wind power to create green hydrogen via offshore electrolysers and store the gas in underwater tanks. On-site fuel cells would then convert the clean H 2 back into electricity when required.
About two thirds of the funding for the pilot is coming from the project partners themselves — oil & gas services provider TechnipFMC, Swedish utility Vattenfall, Spanish oil & gas giant Repsol, Swiss technology company ABB, Norwegian electrolyser manufacturer Nel Hydrogen, Norway-based advisory firm DNV GL, Norwegian conglomerate Umoe and Norwegian process-control engineer Slåttland.
