UK Government Backs ERM’s Floating Wind-to-Hydrogen Project

Environmental Resources Management (ERM) has been awarded GBP 8.6 million (EUR 10.1 million) in funding from the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio Low Carbon Hydrogen Supply 2 fund by the UK government for the ERM Dolpyn floating wind-to-hydrogen project.

The funding will be used for offshore demonstration trials to evaluate systems during 2023 which will produce electrolytic hydrogen from seawater in an offshore floating marine environment, and for the development of a commercial-scale demonstrator by 2025.

ERM Dolphyn is a technology developed by ERM, which combines electrolysis, desalination, and hydrogen production on a floating wind platform.

As the technology produces hydrogen directly from seawater and wind, it is a fully sustainable solution and does not put any additional load on the power grid, thereby avoiding grid constraint issues, ERM says.

According to the company, the project is in line with the UK government’s Ten Point Plan to net zero.

In March, ERM signed an agreement with Source Energie to jointly develop projects in the Celtic Sea that combine floating wind and green hydrogen production.

The first of these are planned to be developed at the 300 MW Dylan site, located approximately 60 kilometres off the Pembrokeshire coast, where the companies’ joint project is expected to be operational by the end of 2028.

The partners said that the site had an ideal location as it offers good energy-generating conditions, strong expansion potential, and a number of viable low-impact pipeline routes to areas of existing and growing hydrogen demand.

Last year, ERM signed a memorandum of understanding with Simply Blue Energy and Subsea 7 for the potential use of the ERM Dolphyn hydrogen technology on the 200 MW Salamander floating wind project.

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