GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

The project will incur substantial integration costs, both upstream and downstream of the electrolyser, in addition to the costs of the offshore electrolyser itself.

Proposals should address the following:

• Deployment of a system that is designed to be remotely controlled, monitored and autonomously operated to minimise operational costs, while also allowing ready access for essential maintenance purposes;
• Evaluation of the operational, inspection and maintenance requirements of offshore electrolysis systems;
• Operation of the offshore electrolyser and hydrogen export/storage/use for two complete seasonal cycles (24 months). Projects should record all relevant operating data (e.g.: electricity input, hydrogen production and export, system degradation, system fault/trips and root cause analysis) to allow the feasibility of offshore renewable electrolysis to be fully assessed;
• Determination of the performance of the offshore electrolyser in terms of efficiency, performance degradation, operational and maintenance costs;
• If relevant to the electrolyser site, an assessment of economic impact of re-using existing offshore infrastructure compared with developing new offshore infrastructure. KPIs regarding accommodation ratios (MW/m²), cost of installed production (€/MW), etc, shall be defined as appropriate in the proposals to build the assessment;
• A techno-economic comparison of the chosen approach to offshore hydrogen production and transport by pipeline with an otherwise similar approach on land that is based on onshore wind power;
• Assessment of the efficient use of the available renewable energy and of the best control strategies to optimise the plant performances based on the measured process operation data. For this purpose, proposals shall define KPIs regarding availability, efficiency, LCOH, etc;
• Assessment of the environmental impact in terms of avoided CO2 emissions resulting from the utilisation of the renewable hydrogen produced offshore. A preliminary estimation of the CO2 avoided emission is expected already in the proposal;
• Describe how learnings will be communicated and dissemination will occur beyond the consortium, including regions in Europe with significant potential for offshore renewable hydrogen production.

To address adequately the challenges of this project, the consortium should assess:

• Technical and specific hydrogen expertise for the design, provision, integration, safety and operation of the offshore electrolysis process devices and associated hydrogen export/use
• The necessary contractual and commercial expertise to market the hydrogen;
• The end-use of the produced and exported hydrogen;
• The potential sustainability of the deployed renewable production plant beyond the demonstration phase;
• Obtaining the necessary permitting and regulatory approvals as required for the timeframe of the project;
• Legal, safety and regulatory expertise related.