Because it believes that to reach Paris Agreement goals, the world will need vast amounts of green hydrogen, and that wind will provide a large portion of the power needed for its production, Siemens Gamesa and Siemens Energy have announced that they are joining forces, combining their ongoing wind to hydrogen developments. The companies are contributing to a solution that fully integrates an electrolyser into an offshore wind turbine as a single synchronised system to directly produce green hydrogen. The companies intend to provide a full-scale offshore demonstration by 2025/2026. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research announced today that the developments can be implemented as part of the ideas competition ‘Hydrogen Republic of Germany’.
Christian Bruch, CEO of Siemens Energy, commented: “Together with Siemens Gamesa, we are in a unique position to develop this game changing solution. We are the company that can leverage its highly flexible electrolyser technology and create and redefine the future of sustainable offshore energy production. With these developments, the potential of regions with abundant offshore wind will become accessible for the hydrogen economy. It is a prime example of enabling us to store and transport wind energy, thus reducing the carbon footprint of economy."
Over a timeframe of five years Siemens Gamesa plans to invest € 80 million and Siemens Energy is targeting to invest € 40 million in the developments. Siemens Gamesa will adapt its development of the its 14MW SG14-222 DD offshore wind turbine, to integrate an electrolysis system seamlessly into the turbine’s operations. Siemens Energy will develop a new electrolysis product to meet the needs of the harsh maritime offshore environment and be in perfect sync with the wind turbine.
The integrated solution will incorporate an electrolyser array located at the base of the offshore wind turbine tower. The solution is intended to lower the cost of hydrogen by being able to run off grid, opening up more and better wind sites.
These developments are intended also to serve as a test bed for making large-scale, cost-efficient hydrogen production a reality and proving the feasibility of reliable, effective implementation of wind turbines in systems for producing hydrogen from renewable energy. The developments are part of the ‘H2Mare’ initiative which is a lighthouse project likely to be supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research ideas competition ‘Hydrogen Republic of Germany’. The H2mare Initiative, under the consortium lead of Siemens Energy, is a modular project consisting of multiple sub-projects to which more than 30 partners from industry, institutes and academia are contributing.
