The world’s first commercial-scale green-hydrogen plant to be powered solely by surplus offshore wind energy has been announced by a trio of Belgian companies.
Offshore engineer DEME, Flanders-focused financier PMV and the Port of Ostend plan to build a 50MW demonstration project at the port — set to be the world’s largest electrolyser plant — before completing an even bigger, commercial-scale unit in 2025.
It has long been suggested that excess renewable energy that cannot be absorbed by the grid should be diverted into the production of green hydrogen, rather than being curtailed, via a process known as electrolysis — using electricity to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. But this is the first project to be announced that specifically aims to power electrolysers using only excess renewable power.