Acciona is leading a €6mn project, backed by the Spanish government, that would see the world’s first green hydrogen project powered by floating wind and solar PV built at sea
On 17 January, Recharge reported that the project, OceanH2, will look to explore different implementation scenarios for an offshore hybrid electricity generation system, one that considers the emerging hydrogen production, storage and distribution supply chain. It will be based around Hexicon’s twin-headed floating wind units and open-sea solar installations powering onboard electrolysers.
Hexicon CEO, Marcus Thor, told Recharge that there were “two main merits” to using floating wind to produce hydrogen offshore. Thor explained: “First, of course, that being offshore there is limitless water; and second, that floating wind plants could function with no connection to the mainland, producing hydrogen for offshore loading onto shuttle tankers for onward transport to industry and also for use in the future as fuel for green shipping. And this would get a project out of a pressures of power pricing. The need for stable electricity prices is removed.”
The project will begin with a laboratory-scale test of several concepts conducted by Wunder Hexicon – jointly owned by Hexicon and Spanish firm, WunderSight. It is expected to last three-years and will be developed in six autonomous communities of Spain – Madrid, the Canary Islands, Andalusia, Cantabria, Navarra, and Catalonia – in a bid to ensure technology synergies and national scientific capacities.
