The Netherlands – Engineers from KCI and GE Renewable Energy and Pondera have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to conduct a feasibility study on the Green Hydrogen Centralized Offshore Wind Production Project AmpHytrite.
By focusing on a centralized offshore and off-grid hydrogen production unit, the AmpHytrite project hopes to reduce the complexity of this green hydrogen offshore wind production unit and eventually build and operate it in stages rather than all at once. Green hydrogen production at sea on a large scale at an affordable cost would be the ultimate goal of this project in aiding decarbonization and expediting the energy transition.
Sif’s Maasvlakte 2 terminal in the Port of Rotterdam is the preferred location for the AmpHytrite demonstrator, taking into account all current and future safety parameters. By using the Maasvlakte 2 terminal, the unit can be deployed without affecting Sif’s core business or potential future expansions in a risk-free environment. By 2023, the demonstrator should be operational and ready for testing.
It is designed to simulate the complexity of having a centralized green hydrogen unit operating offshore and off-grid, from the green electrons provided by the Wind Turbine Generator (WTG) to on-shore hydrogen customer’s offtake profile requirements. An offshore, off-grid centralized green hydrogen windfarm demonstration project could be implemented under the terms of the MoU in order to verify its viability.
Phases 1 through 3 are outlined in the memorandum of understanding. As part of the first stage, KCI, Sif, Pondera, and GE Renewable Energy will work together to conduct a feasibility study on the viability of offshore, off-grid, centralized green hydrogen production. Sif’s Maasvlakte 2 terminal in the Netherlands is expected to have a small-scale onshore unit powered solely by the Haliade turbine on site, as if it were completely off-grid.
As a proof of concept, a smaller version of the main phase would be developed and constructed at the Sif terminal in order to demonstrate that the concept can be applied to an offshore and off-grid operation. Offshore and off-grid windfarms could be built in the third phase using the tested technology of phase two’s concept scaling.
