Orsted In Gigawatt-Scale Offshore Wind To Green Hydrogen Plan With Steel Giant ArcelorMittal
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Recharge.
The title says a lot and at the heart of the plan is a 1 GW electrolyser.
Now that is enormous.
Will it be made in Rotherham by ITM Power?
The article is a must read.
WindH2 Hydrogen Project Commissioned In Germany
The title of this post, is the same as that as this article on Chemical Engineering.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Salzgitter AG, Avacon and Linde have taken an important step on the path to decarbonizing the steel industry. With the commissioning of “Wind Hydrogen Salzgitter – WindH2”, Germany’s only cross-sector project, green hydrogen will be produced in future with electricity generated by wind power on the site of the steelworks in Salzgitter.
This sentence describes the hydrogen production.
Avacon, a member of the E.ON Group, operates seven newly built wind turbines with an output totaling 30 megawatts on the premises of Salzgitter AG. Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH has installed two Siemens 1.25 megawatt PEM electrolyzer units on its plant site that are capable of producing around 450 m3 per hour of ultra pure hydrogen.
It appears that Salzgitter AG are initially using hydrogen to cut their carbon footprint.
To get an impression of the size of the steelworks, look at this Google Map.
Note that if you click on the map to show it in a large scale, stahl is German for steel.
The article is certainly worth a read.
Morocco Could Produce Up To 4% Of World’s Green Hydrogen By 2030
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Morocco World News.
This is the first paragraph.
Morocco could produce up to 4% of the global demand for green hydrogen by 2030, according to the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development.
They are aiming to produce 10,000 tonnes of hydrogen per year by 2025.
Wikipedia has an informative topic called Energy Policy in Morocco, which indicates the following.
- The country has little oil and gas reserves. Although it does have some oil shale, that could be developed.
- Wind, solar and hydro power are being developed.
- They could install a nuclear power station East of Rabat.
It sounds, that they could have an electricity structure, that would be ideal for the production of green hydrogen.
Conclusion
Morocco could be joining an ever growing club, which includes Australia, Saudi Arabia and Spain, who will produce hydrogen for export to countries like Germany, Japan and South Korea.
Ex-Steelworks To Make Wind Farm Parts In Plan For 6,000 Green Jobs
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.
This is the introductory paragraph.
The government will invest almost £100 million creating new wind turbine ports in northeast England, with a big renewables company announcing plans to make crucial parts in Teesside.
The two ports will be on Teesside and North Lincolnshire.
The next generation of wind turbines in the North Sea will be very different.
Larger Turbines
They will be larger and the blades will be bigger, so building them close to, where they will be installed is a sensible idea.
We are also very good at aerodynamics in the UK. This is the reason Airbus designs and builds wings in the UK.
Floating Turbines
The next generation of wind farms will be floating, as for some reason, they have a higher capacity factor.
I am personally pleased about this, as it appears they are based on a patented but failed design of floating oil production platform from the 1970s, where I performed the calculations on how to install them.
Some of these floating wind turbines can also be floated into port for major services and upgrades, which probably means we need local manufacturing of as many parts as possible.
Hydrogen Rather Than Electrical Connection
They will also create hydrogen, rather than electricity, by using a combination of wind turbine and hydrogen electrolyser.
As distances between shore and wind farm get longer, it is cheaper to use a gas pipe, rather than a DC electricity link.
Hydrogen can also be stored in worked out gas fields and also brought ashore in redundant pipelines.
The hydrogen electrolysers will probably be built in the world’s largest electrolyser factory in Rotherham, owned by ITM Power; a UK company.
Conclusion
As we are going to build almost 70 GW of offshore wind in the next few years, we’re going to need a turbines and I believe increasingly, they will be built in the UK.
So these two wind ports at Teesside and in Lincolnshire are a good idea.
H2 Green Steel Plans 800 MW Hydrogen Plant In Sweden
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on montel.
The title says it all.
In Can The UK Have A Capacity To Create Five GW Of Green Hydrogen?, I said the following.
Ryze Hydrogen are building the Herne Bay electrolyser.
- It will consume 23 MW of solar and wind power.
- It will produce ten tonnes of hydrogen per day.
The electrolyser will consume 552 MWh to produce ten tonnes of hydrogen, so creating one tonne of hydrogen needs 55.2 MWh of electricity.
This would mean that H2 Green Steel’s electrolyser could be producing around one hundred and forty thousand tonnes of hydrogen per year or 380 tonnes per day.
What About Scunthorpe?
I very much believe that Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire, would be the ideal place for hydrogen steelmaking in the UK as I outlined in Green Hydrogen To Power First Zero Carbon Steel Plant.
So could 800 MW of electricity be available to produce the hydrogen in the area.
Currently, the world’s largest offshore wind farm is Hornsea One with a capacity of 1218 MW, which feeds into the National Grid at Killingholme.
This Google Map shows the distance between Scunthorpe and Killingholme.
Note.
- Scunthorpe is in the South-West corner of the map.
- Killingholme is in the North-East corner of the map.
The distance is about twenty miles.
When fully developed, the Hornsea Wind Farm is planned to have a capacity of 6 GW or 6000 MW, so there should be enough renewable energy.
Could The Hydrogen Be Created Offshore?
In ITM Power and Ørsted: Wind Turbine Electrolyser Integration, I wrote about combining wind turbines and electrolysers to create an offshore wind turbine, that generates hydrogen, rather than electricity.
This approach may be ideal for the later phases of the Hornsea Wind Farm.
- Redundant gas pipes can be used to bring the hydrogen ashore.
- Worked-out offshore gas fields can be used to store hydrogen.
- Worked-out gas fields in the area, are already being used to store natural gas from Norway.
- The hydrogen can be fed directly into the HumberZero hydrogen network.
But the main reason, is that some serious commentators feel it is more affordable approach in terms of capital and maintenance costs.
It is also easy to convert hydrogen back to zero-carbon electricity, if you have a handy gas-fired power station. There could be as many of three of these at Keadby.
Conclusion
It’s all coming together on Humberside.
Anything the Swedes can do, we can do better!
SSE Goes Global To Reap The Wind
The title of this article on This Is Money is Renewable Energy Giant SSE Launches Plan To Become Britain’s First Global Windfarm Business As it Invests Up To £15bn Over Next Decade.
The title is a good summary of their plans to build wind farms in Continental Europe, Denmark, Japan and the US, in addition to the UK and Ireland.
I can also see the company developing more integrated energy clusters using the following technologies.
- Wind farms that generate hydrogen rather than electricity using integrated electrolysers and wind turbines, developed by companies like ITM Power and Ørsted.
- Reusing of worked out gasfields and redundant gas pipelines.
- Zero-carbon CCGT power stations running on Hydrogen.
- Lots of Energy storage.
I talked about this type of integration in Batteries Could Save £195m Annually By Providing Reserve Finds National Grid ESO Trial.
In the related post, I talked about the Keadby cluster of gas-fired power stations, which are in large part owned by SSE.
Conclusion
I think that SSE could be going the way of Equinor and Ørsted and becoming a global energy company.
It is also interesting the BP and Shell are investing in renewable energy to match the two Scandinavian companies.
Big Oil seems to be transforming itself into Big Wind.
All these companies seem to lack grid-scale energy storage, although hydrogen can be generated and stored in worked-out gas fields.
So I would expect that some of the up-and-coming energy storage companies like Gravitricity, Highview Power and RheEnergise could soon have connections with some of these Big Wind companies.
Aberdeen-Based Energy Storage Firm Aims To Raise £300 Million
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on insider.
I like the Carbon Neutral Energy’s concept.
- It will provide small energy storage systems with an output of between 1 MW an 5 MW
- The energy storage systems appear to be mobile.
- It will create 200 Scottish jobs.
The company has signed an agreement with Muirden Energy, who are a wind energy developer. This is Muirden’s mission statement, from their web site.
Muirden Energy is a successful renewable energy developer specialising in onshore wind energy. We deliver sensitively designed wind projects across Scotland and forge strong working relationships with local communities. We are committed to contributing to Scotland’s renewable energy needs and supporting the economic development of surrounding communities.
They have installed 60 MW of generating capacity across 30 sites in seven years.
Conclusion
This looks like a company and a concept to follow.
How many villages, factories and stations, could be powered partly by one or more wind turbines and a battery?
Crown Estate’s Auction Of Seabed For Wind Farms Attracts Sky-High Bids
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.
This is the opening paragraph.
An auction of seabed rights to build offshore wind farms around England and Wales has attracted frenzied bidding that could be worth hundreds of millions of pounds a year to the Treasury and the Queen.
I don’t find this surprising.
Bigger Seems Better Offshore
Wind turbine technology is getting better and much larger. It also seems that the new larger floating turbines are much more efficient and generate power for a greater proportion of the day.
- Hywind Scotland is the world’s first commercial wind farm using floating wind turbines.
- It is situated off Peterhead.
- It consists of five 6 MW turbines.
- Wikipedia says it has a capacity factor of over 50 %.
My project management software helped to harvest North Sea Oil and I have been told by many in the industry, that North Sea Oil really took off when platforms and the equipment like cranes used to build them got truly enormous.
I feel, we could be seeing the same size effect happening as we harvest the wind!
Hydrogen And Wind Power
The latest development is not to generate electricity, but to use it in the turbine to generate hydrogen, which is then piped to the shore.
- The UK Government is funding this technology in part with a grant to ITM Power.
- I wrote about the technology in ITM Power and Ørsted: Wind Turbine Electrolyser Integration.
- Existing gas networks can be reconfigured to bring the hydrogen to the shore.
- Piping hydrogen costs less than cabling electricity.
- Hydrogen networks are being built at several places in the UK, to fuel homes, power stations and industry like steel-making and petrochemicals.
Could all this explain Big Oil’s involvement?
Do they want to exchange fossil fuels for green hydrogen?
They certainly know how to distribute it.
Energy Storage
For my own investments, I’m looking at energy storage, where the UK has at least three promising new ideas, all of whom have had Government grants.
- Gravitricity
- Highview Power
- ReEnergise
The Government has also indirectly-backed Cornish Lithium
TechnipFMC To Build And Trial Offshore Green Hydrogen Production Project
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Hydrogen Fuel News.
This is the introductory paragraph.
TechnipFMC has announced that it is leading a consortium composed of some of the largest renewables players, in order to build and test a new offshore green hydrogen production system.
This is a second consortium going down the same route, after the Orsted consortium, That I wrote about in EU Backs Orsted Team On Green Hydrogen Initiative.
I obviously haven’t done the costings, but as two consortia are developing the technology to create hydrogen offshore, perhaps it is the more economic route.
North Dakota Coal Country Backlash Against Wind Energy Is Misguided, Wind Advocates Say
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Inforum.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Two counties in North Dakota coal country have passed policies aimed at banning wind power development — but federal studies show that abundant natural gas is chiefly to blame for the closure of coal-fired power plants.
It appears that the closure of 1151 MW Coal Creek power station in 2022, will cost almost a thousand jobs.
This is the downside of decarbonisation.
These two paragraphs give a flavour of the argument.
Coal country officials have said they’re not against wind power, but said the economic benefits of wind can’t begin to compare to the contributions, in jobs and tax revenues, to coal-fired power plants and the mines that supply them. Most jobs involving a wind farm come during construction.
“There will be a limited number of permanent jobs after the tower is up, if and when that happens,” said Buster Langowski, the Mercer County economic development director. Wind farms need only four or five employees to operate. “That’s not a lot of folks.”
It appears that the changeover needs to be better managed.
The Anonymous Widower 