Many have come to consider green hydrogen as a centrepiece of the green transition. Decision makers are increasingly betting on hydrogen produced from renewables as a means to lower emissions and transform hard to abate sectors. But currently, green hydrogen production capacity is low, and more knowledge is needed to turn green hydrogen into a scalable, cost-effective enterprise. At the waterfront of Avedøre close to Copenhagen, a project utilising the potentials of sectoral integration is going to research and demonstrate how such production models might be achieved.

The 2 MW demonstration project, H2RES, helmed by Ørsted, will use the energy company’s two 3.6MW offshore wind turbines at Avedøre Holme to power green hydrogen production and explore how to best combine an efficient electrolyser with the fluctuating power supply from offshore wind.

Inaugurated in May 2021, the project encompasses several ‘state-of-the-art’ elements, which have never been seen in this context before.

H2RES will be the world’s first electrolyser connected directly to offshore wind turbines, forming an integrated setup. The setup will be connected to the transmission grid as well, which requires new, intelligent dispatch algorithms to optimise the value of the setup depending on the market price signals. This solution ensures that external power can be imported during longer periods of low wind power production or exported if the electrical supply/demand situation is tight.

The modular electrolyser will be an intelligent N+1 electrolyser solution, which uses smart software and AI to optimize the efficiency of the hydrogen production. The hydrogen exiting the electrolyser will go through a high-pressure compressor, which compresses the hydrogen from approximately 30 bar to 350 bar. High compression yields higher energy density and thus reduces storage costs.

The storage setup is comprised of a trailer bay system and trailer containers. This innovative setup will ensure that the hydrogen ill flow to hydrogen storage containers that can be transported directly to local deposits, minimizing the need for additional hydrogen storage.

The facility will produce up to around 1,000 kilograms of green hydrogen daily, which will fuel zero-emission road transport in the Greater Copenhagen area and on Zealand. With these results, the H2RES project aims to show that electrolysis-based hydrogen production based on energy from offshore wind turbines can be used as an effective and valuable sectoral integration between the electricity grid and the transportation sector.

Crucially, because the project employs so many groundbreaking, scalable solutions from Danish providers, it will generate knowledge about the to further optimisation and cost-reduction of green hydrogen production. This is a critical steppingstone for future green hydrogen projects, which will play a major role in the global energy transition.

Green hydrogen production is seen as a cornerstone on the path to achieve the targets of a decarbonized economy. It is estimated that hydrogen from renewables can contribute to bring down emissions from industry, transportation and buildings, which account for around 65% of annual CO2 emissions in the EU. The EU recently announced an ambitious hydrogen strategy, targeting 6 GW of installed renewable hydrogen capacity by 2024 and 40 GW by 2030, compared with the current around 300 MW installed renewable hydrogen capacity. Innovative projects like H2RES, with visionary ambitions are leading the way to get us there.