Vattenfall has been awarded £9.3 MM ($11.6 MM) in innovation funding from the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio Low Carbon Hydrogen Supply 2 fund by the UK Government. The funding will be used to develop the world’s first H₂-producing offshore wind turbine, with the electrolyzer sited directly onto an existing operational turbine.

The pilot project at Vattenfall’s offshore wind farm in Aberdeen Bay will have an output of 8 MW and will be able to produce enough H₂ every day to power a H₂ bus to travel 24,000 kilometers. The H₂ will be piped to shore at Aberdeen Harbor.

“We are very happy with the Government funding. Placing hydrogen electrolyzers on offshore wind turbines is likely to be the quickest and cheapest way of providing fossil-free hydrogen at scale,” said Danielle Lane, UK Country Manager for Vattenfall.

The project—called Hydrogen Turbine 1 (HT1)—aims to be first project in the world to test the full integration of H₂ production with an offshore wind turbine. HT1 will also map out development and consent processes for large-scale H₂ projects co-located with offshore wind farms to speed up future development.

The availability of large quantities of fossil-free H₂ will play a key role in the decarbonization of heavy industry (predominantly in steel, chemicals, and fertilizer production as well as refining), as well as heavy transport.

Work will commence immediately with the goal of first production as early as 2025.