Siemens Gamesa will produce green hydrogen at wind turbine level in a pilot project due to start operation in January next year that’s claimed to promise the cheapest renewable H₂ yet available.

The wind OEM signed an agreement with Danish electrolysis specialist Green Hydrogen Systems (GHS) to advance the demonstrator project at a site in Denmark.

Instead of exporting electricity to the grid or for remote electrolysis, the 3MW Siemens Gamesa turbine will power a single 400kW electrolyser, with the hydrogen produced stored on site to provide fuel for transport. Oxygen that's a by-product of the process will be released to the atmosphere.

H₂ production at the site of renewable power – whether on- or offshore – is seen as a potential key cost-reduction driver for the emerging renewable hydrogen sector, which is expected to see massive demand from the later 2020s.

GHS said its electrolysis system is designed for the variable output of wind turbines. “Combined with the on-site production approach, this enables the solution to produce green hydrogen at the lowest levelised cost available, and on the way to cost parity with fossil-based hydrogen,” claimed the Danish group, without putting a specific value on the cost.

Finn Daugaard Madsen, innovation manager for Power-2-X applications at Siemens Gamesa, said the pilot project aims to “lead to a very lean and cost-effective means of storing and utilising green energy from wind turbines”.

Siemens Gamesa will play a key role in the wider hydrogen plans of parent group Siemens Energy, the latter’s CEO stressed in a presentation to investors last week.

Christian Bruch said the OEM would look at challenges such as “how can we develop hydrogen at the bottom of a wind turbine tower and produce hydrogen directly offshore and bring molecules to the coast?”

Wind

Siemens Gamesa wind turbine pilot targets 'cheapest green hydrogen'