Onshore, offshore or in-turbine electrolysis? Techno-economic overview of alternative integration designs for green hydrogen production into Offshore Wind Power Hubs

Alessandro Singlitico,Jacob Østergaard,Spyros Chatzivasileiadis

doi:10.1016/j.rset.2021.100005

Alessandro Singlitico, Jacob Østergaard + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rset.2021.100005

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Abstract

Massive investments in offshore wind power generate significant challenges on how this electricity will be integrated into the incumbent energy systems. In this context, green hydrogen produced by offshore wind emerges as a promising solution to remove barriers towards a carbon-free economy in Europe and beyond. Motivated by the recent developments in Denmark with the decision to construct the world's first artificial Offshore Energy Hub, this paper investigates how the lowest cost for green hydrogen can be achieved. A model proposing an integrated design of the hydrogen and offshore electric power infrastructure, determining the levelised costs of both hydrogen and electricity, is proposed. The economic feasibility of hydrogen production from Offshore Wind Power Hubs is evaluated considering the combination of different electrolyser placements, technologies and modes of operations. The results show that costs down to 2.4 €/kg can be achieved for green hydrogen production offshore, competitive with the hydrogen costs currently produced by natural gas. Moreover, a reduction of up to 13% of the cost of wind electricity is registered when an electrolyser is installed offshore shaving the peak loads.

Highlights

1.1 Background Concrete actions to accelerate the transition to a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions society have been taken across the European Union (EU) and beyond [1]
1.3 Motivation and objectives Considering that the production of green hydrogen will be closely associated with the Offshore Energy Hubs, and the central role hydrogen is expected to play in the energy economy, one key question arises: how can we achieve the lowest cost for green hydrogen delivered onshore? To answer this question, this paper presents a holistic approach, proposing a techno-economic model which considers the complementary design of both hydrogen and offshore electric power infrastructure, so far considered only separately [14,15,16,17]
This is due to the combined effects of higher CapEx for small sizes, due to economies of scale, and lower operating pressure, which requires the use of external additional compression, absorbing part of the electric energy directed to hydrogen production, decreasing its hydrogen production

Summary

Introduction

1.1 Background Concrete actions to accelerate the transition to a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions society have been taken across the European Union (EU) and beyond [1]. In February 2021, the Danish Parliament mandated the construction of the first artificial Energy Island in the North Sea as an initial step to harvest the abundant far offshore wind potential [2,3]. This Energy Island [4] will act as a Hub, interconnecting 3 GW of offshore wind power plants (OWPPs) and transmitting the produced electricity to shore, at much lower costs than OWPPs singularly connected to shore [5] (Figure 1). The planned offshore installations require grid reinforcements in the order of billions of Euros [5,11]. Electricity will still face challenges with penetrating the so-called hard-toabate sectors (e.g. heavy-duty road transport, aviation, shipping, and the steel industry), for which more energy-dense carriers are required

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