Principle Power has secured front end engineering and design (FEED) work for a floating wind-to-hydrogen scheme set to be built off Aberdeen.
Developed by Environmental Resources Management (ERM), plans for Dolphyn – Deepwater Offshore Local Production of HYdrogeN – would see the construction of a demonstrator project capable of producing green hydrogen from seawater at scale using floating offshore wind power.
The concept uses a modular design that integrates electrolyser facilities and a wind turbine on a moored semi-submersible platform, based on WindFloat technology developed by Principle Power.
ERM has previously said it intends to situate the unit 15km off Aberdeen, using a similar design to the existing Kincardine floating offshore wind farm.
The latest award will see Principle advance FEED studies for the project with a focus on the floating foundation element.
It follows the award of £8.62 million in UK Government funding to progress the development.
“It is now established that to meet net-zero ambitions in the UK and all around the world, hydrogen from offshore floating wind needs to be a significant component in any viable long-term solution for heat, electricity generation, and transport,” said ERM partner David Caine.
“The ERM Dolphyn project, a first-of-a-kind, is an innovative integrated system combining all the technologies required to bring the latest floating wind and hydrogen production technologies together to enable offshore wind resources to contribute toward hydrogen production at scale. Principle Power has been instrumental in this process, and we’re delighted to extend our collaboration.”
In May, the developer announced that Offshore Design Engineering (ODE) had also secured a FEED award for the project, covering topside equipment, export pipeline and facility design, and would advance the scheme together with consortium members Tractabel and Vestas.
The 10-MW demonstrator unit is slated for completion and operation by summer 2025.
Following the demonstrator phase, the scheme could be scaled up to a total of 4GW capacity, ERM says – energy enough to heat more than 1.5 million homes.
The project forms part of the UK’s Hydrogen coast strategy, which overall is expected to help generate more than 10,000 new jobs by 2030 and over 100,000 by 2050.
“We are pleased to continue our years-long collaboration with ERM on the Dolphyn project, and we are eager to further develop partnerships across the entire supply chain supporting floating offshore wind applications to support and accelerate growth in the UK and globally,” commented Principle’s senior business development manager Gregory-Campbell Smith.
“Moving to FEED on the Dolphyn project is a significant milestone towards our collective carbon-free future.”
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