UK’s first offshore H2 production site

The memorandum of understanding could see Centrica’s natural gas field, Rough, situated in the North Sea off England’s east coast, become the world’s largest hydrogen store, with up to 16TWh of capacity.

“Hydrogen is going to play a key role in decarbonising the UK’s power supply by 2035,” said Martin Scargill, managing director of Centrica Storage.

“This pilot will show how green hydrogen can be produced, moved and stored in the UK market, all while supporting the UK on its net zero journey.”

Along with production, the companies will explore deploying the technology at commercial scale alongside offshore wind electricity production.

“Offshore electrolysis coupled with hydrogen storage will maximise the huge potential of offshore wind around the UK,” said Colin Brown, UK and Ireland country manager of Lhyfe.

“The UK can become a global leader in the production of renewable green hydrogen, moving away from our reliance on fossil fuels and improving our homegrown energy security, while delivering net zero and boosting local economies.”

The UK government has doubled its low-carbon hydrogen production target from 5GW to 10GW by 2030, with at least half of this coming from green hydrogen. Globally, the race to produce hydrogen is already on with Lhyfe inaugurating the world’s first offshore production unit – Sealhyfe – off France’s west coast in September last year.

An initial shoreside six-month trial to test systems such as desalination and cooling, stack behaviour, remote control, energy management and resistance to environmental conditions is nearing completion after which Sealhyfe will spend a year at sea, close to the floating wind turbine at SEM-REV, operated by Centrale Nantes. It will be fixed to the ground with anchors and connected to the site’s underwater hub by pipeline.