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A director of a world leading renewables company has told a conference in Glasgow that he’s optimistic about greener fuel alternatives being developed but warned that time is is running out.
Richard Sanford from Offshore Development Europe at RWE Renewables said:” There is enough sea space, there is enough wind, without question. Grid is one of the challenges to deploy huge offshore wind.”
A grid-connected is a system which gives off power with renewable energy during those periods when the sun is shining, the water is running, or the wind is blowing. Any excess electricity you produce is fed back into the grid.
Sandford added: “Hydrogen is a solution to that – you don’t necessary need an electrical transmission system. You can have a hydrogen system.”
RWE Renewables is currently working with the German company Siemens where they are developing offshore turbines, electrolyzer’s and will eventually pipe the hydrogen to land.
The purpose of an electrolyzer device is that it splits water in-between both hydrogen and oxygen followed by a method called electrolysis and results in green hydrogen being formed.
He added:” The project there will band the scale up to potentially ten gigawatts, so that’s ten gigawatts of free hydrogen being transmitted through pipes to shore”
10 gigawatts would be enough power to two thirds of Australia’s electricity needs and the equivalent to 40 million solar panels.
“Where other projects were looking at electrolysers on shore, floated offshore winds power of the green electricity to the electrolyzers and then from there we have this other project in Pembrooke where we have this gas fired PowerStation
“So we’re going to have a float of offshore wind providing electricity to an electrolyzer on shore and powering the PowerStation with that green hydrogen.
“You need the right markets in place, the right policies in place, the right strategic roadmap in place.”
The UK Government recently released a hydrogen strategy however Sandford insists it’s a great start, but it needs more detail.
The director was speaking at the ‘Offshore Wind X Green Hydrogen: A solutions collaboration’ virtual event.
