Quick profile
Ørsted is a green, internationally-operating energy company, as well as a pioneer and market leader in the field of offshore wind energy. With four wind farms in the North Sea currently and around 1.4 gigawatts installed capacity, the company already provides approximately 1.4 million households in Germany with renewable energy. By 2025, at least a further 1.2 GW offshore wind power in the North Sea off the coast of Germany is planned. The green electricity generated at sea provides sufficient energy for electrolysis for hydrogen production. As a co-owner of the WESTKÜSTE100 electrolysis facility, Ørsted will contribute towards developing the dynamically optimised operations management, in order to produce hydrogen as cost-effectively as possible. Following the successful implementation of the electrolysis system in the existing refinery operations, the next step will be the large-scale production and use of green hydrogen and downstream products in the Heide region.
Activities in the real-world laboratory
Together with the Heide refinery and Hynamics Deutschland, Ørsted is planning, constructing and implementing a 30 MW electrolysis facility for generating green hydrogen using electricity from renewable energy. In the process, together with its partners, Ørsted is gathering findings on maintenance, control and operational concepts from operating the electrolysis facility. Ørsted is moreover working on merging the insights obtained from the various sub-projects of WESTKÜSTE100, in order to provide technical and commercial findings for potential scaling of the project as from 2025.
“With the construction and operation of the electrolyser in the real-world laboratory, we will obtain crucial findings on production and industrial use of green hydrogen – knowledge which forms the basis for the decarbonisation of various industrial sectors. WESTKÜSTE100 is ground-breaking as regards turning the integrated transformation of the industry on a large scale into reality.”
Long-term vision
The key to the large-scale green hydrogen production is offshore wind power. No other source of renewable energy provides large quantities of green electricity for electrolysis so reliably. In order to be able to produce the corresponding quantities of green hydrogen, the expansion of the renewables, and in particular of offshore wind power, needs to be aligned with the increased requirement for hydrogen production. The flexible production of green hydrogen so close to the landing points of the offshore wind power moreover ensures that the burden on the power grids is relieved. www.orsted.de