ERM Dolphyn and Source Energie are to develop gigawatt scale green hydrogen floating wind sites in the Celtic Sea.
Announcing the plans on 23 March, ERM detailed how the Celtic Sea offers significant opportunities for offshore energy development, in a strategic area, close to major energy demand centres. The Crown Estate is already in the process of carrying out a consultation process to identify suitable areas for offshore floating wind licenses, while Source Energie has been working to identify medium and long-term sites for development for “some time”.
In linking up with ERM, the joint ambition is to capitalise on the opportunity the Celtic Sea offers and develop floating wind sites that produce green hydrogen. The first of these sites, “Dylan”, is already under development with 2027-28 eyed as a target deployment date. It is situated 60km off the Pembrokeshire coast, west of Milford Haven and was chosen following a phased site selection process. This involved regional resources and constraints analysis, as well as a high-level shipping and navigation review.
Both parties considered the location to be ideal, owed to it offering good energy generation conditions, including average wind speeds of more than 10m/s, strong expansion potential, and a number of viable low impact pipeline routes to areas of existing and growing hydrogen demand. Further expansion would see more than 2GW of energy generated, enough hydrogen to make a material impact on local and national decarbonisation targets and heat around 1mn homes, with no carbon emissions at point of use. A full-scale development would also deliver several thousand jobs and training opportunities.
