Jigsaw Solutions for Future Energy Puzzle
Energy islands serving and converting offshore wind to hydrogen, different forms of tidal solutions and zero emission vessels: bits of the renewable energy puzzle that were presented to a global audience at our digital conference recently.
More than 400 participants attended our International Conference on Maritime Hydrogen & Marine Energy last week, and here are some snapshots from this exciting conference.
World’s first Wind Energy Hub
Denmark has reached a landmark agreement on the construction of an energy hub in the North Sea. The energy hub will be an artificially constructed island 80 kilometers from the shore of the peninsula Jutland. It will be owned by a public-private partnership.
An additional island will be constructed in the Baltic Sea, on an existing island called Bornholm.
Energy islands ensure the most cost-efficient use of large-scale offshore wind resources far from the coasts according to Michael Ertmann, Associate Partner of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.
Moreover, energy islands support the possibility of integrating with innovative technologies (PtX, energy storage) and to optimise operations by acting as hubs for operations and maintenance for offshore wind farms.
Infrastructure and Market for Green Hydrogen
– Germany and Europe are serious about hydrogen and wants to become world market leaders within this area, said Jimmie Langham, Managing Director of AqvaVentus - one of the big major hydrogen projects within Europe.
The project has 72 members along the value chain including global companies and is contributing to Germany’s aim of creating at least 5 GW of production capacity by 2030 and offshore wind plays an important role in this, according to Langham.
The target for AqvaVentus is to have 10 GW of electrolysis capacity by 2035 in the German North Sea - thus they will go offshore to produce hydrogen in the North Sea and by doing this enabling delivery of up to a million tons of green hydrogen via central backbone pipelines in to the European and German hydrogen systems and so, into the hydrogen economy.
Langham, however, emphasized a need for a “real” infrastructure to be built, and for creating a stable market environment for green hydrogen.
Unlocking the Potential of the North Sea
The North Sea Energy Program is basically working under the premises that if you combine the energy sectors of offshore wind and oil and gas where they share their offshore assets and make smart offshore connections society will save coss, time, space, ecological impact and CO2 Emissions.
Offshore wind has a vast potential and is pivotal to reach Paris targets affordably according to Joris Koornneef, Scientific lead North Sea Energy TNO. Who said that, low cost energy production can be achieved with offshore wind.
– But there are challenges with offshore wind, said Koorneef, –and we need to learn a lot more before we can deploy this technology on a GW scale.
Thus, in comes the PosHYdon project, which is a spin-off project of the North Sea Energy Program. The pilot aims to integrate three energy systems in the North Sea: offshore wind, offshore gas and offshore hydrogen by producing hydrogen from seawater on their Q13-a platform in the Dutch North Sea. The aim of the pilot is to gain experience of integrating working energy systems at sea and the production of hydrogen in an offshore environment.
With this result we are really looking forward to next year’s conference where we again invite the energy world to Florø, project leaders Kai Stoltz (GCE Ocean Technology) and Maria Brandsøy (Ocean Hyway Cluster).
How to Reach the IMO 2050 Targets
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) continues to contribute to the global fight against climate change, in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 13, to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
One of the seven workshops during the conference discussed how to reach the IMO 2050 targets.
Some of the recommended actions from this workshop were:
- reduce cost on existing technologies, whilst at the same time developing new fuels, solutions, and infrastructure
- upscale production of green fuel
- get governmental incentives in place to speed up the development
- more cooperation between companies and actors in the whole value chain to speed up the implementation of zero emission technologies
Almost sixty representatives from the energy sectors of the world, presented, debated, moderated and took part in the workshop with the over 400 participants and we share a sample of the presentations with you at our website.
GCE Ocean Technology and Ocean Hyway cluster have arranged the conference to a global audience for the sixth consecutive year and we hope to see you at the 7th Maritime hydrogen and Marine Energy conference next year in Florø.
Contact Information
Kjersti Boge Christensen
Communication Manager
