Giant German offshore wind-to-hydrogen plan 'desperately wants' date for tender
10GW AquaVentus plan backed by major players still awaiting crucial auction timetable and details as initiative's chief warns time is pressing
An ambitious bid to use massive volumes of offshore wind power to produce green hydrogen faces challenges to its progress as the German government is dragging its feet over a tender and a pilot scheme key to the plan has failed to get EU funding.
The initiative counts on the support of over 100 member companies and research institutions – including heavyweights such as RWE, Shell and Siemens Gamesa.
And the sector is “dependent on external factors”, Seehawer said in an interview, “the first and foremost is, when does the SEN auction start?”
Germany’s government has set aside the 1GW SEN-1 zone in the North Sea as a special innovation area for offshore wind and originally had planned to auction it off in 2022. As part of the Ostend declaration on offshore wind by various countries surrounding the North Sea, Berlin hinted at a tender last year after the country’s hydrographic and maritime agency (BSH) increased the geographical size of the zone.
The economics and climate ministry also launched a consultation on how exactly the zone should be split up into various sites, but the government so far hasn’t told the sector when or under which mechanism it intends to tender off SEN-1.
AquaVentus is awaiting the auctions and the plan’s backing group “desperately wants to progress, desperately wants to start,” Seehawer said, adding that presenting an updated timeline for AquaVentus now makes no sense before the SEN-1 auction materialises.
Once “SEN-1 is executed” the roll-out of the AquaVentus plan should be easier, Seehawer said, who reckons subsequently going from 1GW to 10GW of offshore-wind-to-hydrogen is easily feasible.
Even if the full capacity of 10GW were to be reached only in 2036 or beyond, “the question is rather: ‘how do we get this going?’” Seehawer stressed.
“It's more crucial from AquaVentus’ perspective, and also from the members within AquaVentus, that we are starting,” he said.
Stalled pilot project
Another factor holding up the grand plan is that the AquaPrimus2 pilot by utility RWE and turbine manufacturer Siemens Gamesa – featuring two 14MW turbines on fixed-bottom foundations directly connected to electrolysers – failed to secure EU funding under the Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) mechanism.
A linked project, H2Mare, did receive funding from Germany’s science ministry. However, that is a pure R&D project geared towards proving in principle that hydrogen can be produced from offshore electricity, but in a land-based setting.
AquaPrimus2, by contrast, would also include a small desalination plant, which like the electrolyser would be placed directly on, or next to, the wind turbine at sea.
“I would advocate that we also have small-scale funding for a demonstrator and not just look at this 1GW, because that way we can manage the ramp-up” and minimise risks, he said.
Industry is keen on proving the feasibility of offshore hydrogen, Seehawer agreed, explaining that this is key to getting insurance companies and lenders on board. He also stressed that subsidies are needed to bridge a gap with currently low prices for fossil gas or coal.
Green and blue for AquaDuctus
While the key offshore electrolyser pilot is stalled, another sub-project still advancing is the AquaDuctus plan to build a dedicated hydrogen pipeline at the bottom of the North Sea to supply Germany.
But while AquaDuctus originally planned to transport green hydrogen from North Sea offshore wind farms via Heligoland to the German mainland, the sub-project has since been extended to Norway and other neighbouring countries. It is now being planned as a pipeline that will also transport blue hydrogen – made from fossil gas linked to carbon capture and storage (CCS).
To enable hydrogen transports between Norway and Germany, the countries’ gas network operators, Gassco and Gascade, in April 2024 signed a memorandum of understanding aiming at transporting hydrogen via pipeline under the North Sea.
The cooperation between the companies is embedded in a strategic partnership in the fields of climate, renewable energy, and green industry between Norway and Germany that had been launched a year earlier by German climate minister Robert Habeck and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Store together with part state-owned Equinor and RWE.
On the Norwegian side, state-owned Gassco is slated to develop the transport infrastructure for exporting hydrogen produced in Norway to Germany. On the German side, Gascade has the task of developing AquaDuctus in the North Sea for interconnecting adjacent offshore pipelines and providing the downstream connection to Germany. The goal of the planned cooperation is to ensure efficient and coherent planning of the projects.
“The cooperation with Gassco depicts the need for an open-access hydrogen infrastructure in the German North Sea to connect adjacent offshore infrastructure as provided by AquaDuctus,” Gascade managing director Christoph von dem Bussche said when the MoU was signed at the Hannover industrial exposition.
“Our common target is to align interfaces, achieve synergies and develop joint opportunities between the projects to be able to take up hydrogen volumes from Norway as of 2030.”
AquaDuctus will be capable of connecting adjacent offshore pipelines as well as production sites of green hydrogen (ie. from offshore wind) along its way, Gascade said.
Unlike AquaPrimus2, AquaDuctus has been awarded IPCEI status by the EU Commission, enabling state funding. Gascade is currently awaiting a formal confirmation from German authorities for construction to start.
Transporting hydrogen via pipeline would take up less sea space and be cheaper than transmitting electricity from far offshore.
When reaching the dimensions of 10GW, one hydrogen pipeline can be built instead of five high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission systems, which currently are the preferred option for bringing far-offshore wind energy to land.
As the SEN-1 zone is only planned to host 1GW for offshore electrolysis, more areas are needed for the full development of the AquaVentus plan, so Germany’s federal maritime and hydrographic agency (BSH) in its maritime spatial planning has already reserved large swathes of sea space for potential further pure offshore wind or offshore electrolysis production. Those areas are alongside the planned hydrogen pipeline, Seehawer explained.