Under the agreement, the two companies will create hydrogen production sites at some of the offshore wind farm sites currently being developed by Madrid-headquartered Capital Energy, which has a development pipeline of over 7.5GW in both countries. The collaboration agreement could be extended to other markets in the future, the companies said.
In a statement, Pablo Alcón, offshore director at Capital Energy said: “Through this alliance, we intend to use some of the energy generated by our offshore wind farms to produce hydrogen, which will help to drive the energy transition in a balanced way and solve potential bottlenecks in the electricity system. It will also increase the socio-economic benefits of our offshore projects, with greater investment and more skilled jobs.”
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Nantes-based Lhyfe is the first company to have an operational prototype for offshore green hydrogen production. Dubbed Sealhyfe, the demonstrator was inaugurated in France in September 2022 and is now undergoing an 18-month pilot trial. Challenges that Sealhyfe will have to meet include performing all stages of hydrogen production at sea including converting the electrical voltage from a floating wind turbine, pumping, desalinating and purifying seawater, and breaking the water molecules via electrolysis to obtain renewable green hydrogen.
The company aims to have 200MW of green hydrogen production capacity by the end of 2026 and 3GW by the end of 2030.
Taia Kronborg, chief business officer at Lhyfe said: “This agreement with Capital Energy is a tremendous opportunity to foster the transition to clean energy through the large-scale production of green hydrogen at sea. Producing H2 via electrolysis at sea will maximise the immense potential of offshore wind energy. Countries with a coastline, such as Spain and Portugal, can drastically reduce their dependence on fossil fuels and improve their national energy security, while producing net-zero emissions and boosting local economies.”
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