Lhyfe, Capital Energy sign offshore renewable hydrogen deal

LONDON (ICIS)–Lhyfe and Capital Energy signed a deal 12 June where the two companies aim to produce renewable hydrogen offshore from wind turbines off the coast of Spain and Portugal.

Capital Energy is already developing offshore wind farm sites off the coast of both Spain and Portugal, and has over 7.5GW of offshore wind capacity currently under development.

Both Lhyfe and Capital Energy did not give any information on size or timeframes when contacted by ICIS regarding the offshore hydrogen production.

Lhyfe late last year put its Sealhyfe system prototype in place off the coast of France, which produces renewable hydrogen from offshore electrolysis with the electricity being sourced from offshore wind turbines.

Lhyfe and Capital Energy said that the collaboration had two major benefits, economies of scale achieved and social benefits through industrial overlap.

Lhyfe said that the offshore wind turbines would not all be directly connected to the electrolysers, with the possibility of sending less power to the grid in case of congestion and more to the hydrogen production.

According to the country’s hydrogen strategy, Spain is forecasting to have electrolyser capacity of at least 4GW by 2030.

Data from ICIS Power Horizon Forecast showed that the country is set to see production of renewable hydrogen from electrolysers at 16TWh by 2030 before rising to 36TWh by 2040, against demand expectations in the country of 25TWh and 39TWh respectively.

Spain has attracted large investment in renewable hydrogen generation due to the large renewable resource available in the country’s geography, and is a key member of the 2 million tonne/year H2Med pipeline due to be operational by 2030 which links Portugal, Spain, France, and Germany.