A conceptual illustration and scope for a fleet of C-H2 ships to deliver an offshore loading and transport solution for green hydrogen production from floating offshore wind

Australian Company Enters European Offshore Wind-to-Hydrogen Market

Australia-based Global Energy Ventures (GEV) and German company ILF Beratend Ingenieure (ILF Consulting Engineers) have joined forces to develop green hydrogen projects in Europe and Australia – including those involving offshore wind – which will use a compressed hydrogen (C-H2) shipping solution.

Global Energy Ventures

GEV and ILF have agreed to immediately commence the review of identified green hydrogen projects suitable for GEV’s C-H2 shipping solution, which include (floating) offshore wind-powered hydrogen production and export of green hydrogen from Europe to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Under a Memorandum of Understanding the two companies recently signed, ILF will design the upstream infrastructure from the producer to the export or loading facility and downstream from the import or unloading facility to the consumer, and GEV will cover the port-to-port shipment of hydrogen.

For project opportunities that involve the import of hydrogen from regional markets in close proximity to Europe, such as the MENA region, GEV plans to leverage its offshore loading capability and target a C-H2 solution for the offshore wind industry.

According to GEV, a fleet of its C-H2 ships can deliver an offshore loading and transport solution to those areas where a subsea cable or pipeline is not suitable. A C-H2 shipping fleet can be sized to match the scale of both the supply and demand required and is ideally suited for floating wind with minimal fixed infrastructure, the company said.

“GEV has identified Europe as a key market for the company’s C-H2 shipping and supply chain with the renewable energy sector growing at a rapid rate for some years and the transport of green hydrogen using compression highly suitable given the short to medium distances to future demand centres such as Germany”, said Martin Carolan, GEV’s Managing Director.

The companies said that Europe had established a strong business case for green hydrogen.

The EU Hydrogen Strategy, launched last summer, sets a goal of 40 GW of green hydrogen production capacity by 2030 and the potential for the import of further 40 GW from outside of the EU to meet the 2050 net zero targets.

According to ILF, one of the enablers of the EU’s green hydrogen market is the proximity to the North Sea where offshore wind has the potential to provide large amounts of cheap renewable electricity for green hydrogen production.