Offshore staff
LONDON – DEME Offshore will join the PosHYdon pilot, said to be the world’s first offshore green hydrogen project, on Neptune Energy’s Q13a gas platform in the Dutch North Sea.
The company, part of the Belgian DEME Group, will provide the hydrogen unit that will be installed on the platform. The purpose of the pilot is to integrate three energy systems in the North Sea: offshore wind, offshore gas, and offshore hydrogen produced from seawater.
Lex de Groot, managing director of Neptune Energy, said DEME Offshore’s experience in connecting wind farms “is crucial, not only for this pilot, but also to gain experience for the follow-up projects after PosHYdon.
“The expertise that DEME has built worldwide helps us all to scale up after PosHYdon from 1 MW to 100 MW – a crucial step for further developing offshore wind energy and enabling conversion to hydrogen in the North Sea.
“This will be important for wind farms far away from the coast which will be built after 2030, particularly given electricity prices are so low, which could slow down the further development of offshore wind farms.”
Recently DEME Concessions signed green hydrogen production agreements in the ports of Ostend in Belgium and Duqm in Oman.
Bart De Poorter, general manager DEME Offshore, said: “Together with DEME Concessions, we see the system integration, green hydrogen production and electrification of existing platforms at sea as a very interesting market.
“PosHYdon is a starting point. DEME is involved in the conceptual design of a 100-MW offshore hydrogen gas production plant and task leader in the evaluation of the business case in line with this 100 MW concept.
“DEME will also be involved in the transport and installation of the onshore hydrogen unit to the Q13a platform.”
PosHYdon is an initiative of Nexstep, the Dutch association for decommissioning and reuse, and TNO, the Netherlands organisation for applied scientific research, in close collaboration with the industry.
Others involved in the pilot are Gasunie, Noordgastransport, NOGAT, and Eneco, while Neptune’s partners in Q13a-A are EBN and TAQA Offshore.
05/29/2020
