Offshore staff
ABERDEEN, UK – ERM has asked Principle Power to advance the FEED for a Wind-to-Hydrogen Dolphyn 10-MW demonstrator project off the coast of Aberdeen. The two companies have been collaborating on hydrogen production opportunities since 2019.
Earlier ERM Dolphyn (Deepwater Offshore Local Production of HYdrogeN) secured £8.62m of funding via the UK’s Low Carbon Hydrogen Supply 2 competition.
The concept targets production of large-scale green hydrogen from floating offshore wind, via a modular design that integrates electrolysis and a wind turbine on a moored floating semi-submersible platform. The latter is based on Principle Power’s Wind Float technology for producing hydrogen from seawater, using wind power as the energy source.
The 10 MW demonstrator project could start operating in late 2025. Work continues on commercial scale projects (300 MW+) for operation pre-2030, followed by large-scale (up to 4 GW) deployment post-2030.
At the full anticipated capacity of 4 GW total capacity, ERM Dolphyn has the potential to supply energy to heat more than 1.5 million homes with no carbon emissions, thus avoiding the release of millions of tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year.
ERM designed the Dolphyn technology, which combines electrolysis, desalination, and low-carbon hydrogen production on a floating wind platform, with support from the UK, Scottish and Welsh Governments.
Hydrogen produced by Dolphyn is returned to shore via pipeline, for use in power generation, transport, industrial use, and heating. At the point of use, hydrogen produced from Dolphyn is said to be zero carbon.
The North Sea and Celtic Sea are seen as potentially major arenas for deployments.
10.12.2022