Principle Power has been contracted by ERM to advance the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) for a wind-to-H₂ Dolphyn 10-MW demonstrator project off the coast of Aberdeen. The contract was signed after ERM Dolphyn was awarded £8.62 MM of funding from the UK Government, via the Low Carbon Hydrogen Supply 2 Competition.

ERM Dolphyn (Deepwater Offshore Local Production of HYdrogeN) has developed a concept design to produce large-scale green H₂ from floating offshore wind. The ERM Dolphyn concept employs a modular design integrating electrolysis and a wind turbine on a moored floating semi-submersible platform based upon the proven WindFloat technology by Principle Power to produce H₂ from seawater, using wind power as the energy source. ERM and Principle Power have been collaborating on the development of decentralized H₂ production opportunities since 2019.

“It is now established that to meet net-zero ambitions in the UK and all around the world, hydrogen from offshore floating wind needs to be a significant component in any viable long-term solution for heat, electricity generation, and transport. The ERM Dolphyn project, a first-of-a-kind, is an innovative integrated system combining all the technologies required to bring the latest floating wind and hydrogen production technologies together to enable offshore wind resources to contribute toward hydrogen production at scale. Principle Power has been instrumental in this process, and we’re delighted to extend our collaboration,” said David Caine, Partner at ERM.

The 10-MW demonstrator project is a key step in proving the Dolphyn concept prior to commercial-scale deployment. The demonstrator project is targeting operations in late 2025. Commercial scale projects (300MW+) are under development and expected for operation pre-2030, followed by large-scale (GW) deployment post-2030. When fully deployed, at an expected 4 GW total capacity, ERM Dolphyn has the potential to supply energy to heat more than 1.5-MM homes with no carbon emissions, thus avoiding the release of millions of tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere every year.

100 000 new jobs by 2050

ERM Dolphyn is a core project for the UK’s H₂ coast strategy, and it is expected to help generate >10.000 new jobs by 2030 and more than 100.000 by 2050.  Many of these jobs will rely on the world-class skills and knowledge found in the offshore renewables and Oil and Gas sectors. This massive opportunity is not without challenges: the rapid scaling up of floating offshore wind to meet both governments’ and markets’ energy transformation goals requires an equally massive investment in the entire supply chain. A healthy supply chain, engaged early on, is essential to having a holistic view of each project’s challenges and achieving the desired cost reductions that will bring floating offshore wind LCoE in line with other forms of energy generation.

“We are pleased to continue our years-long collaboration with ERM on the Dolphyn project, and we are eager to further develop partnerships across the entire supply chain supporting floating offshore wind applications to support and accelerate growth in the UK and globally. Moving to FEED on the Dolphyn project is a significant milestone towards our collective carbon-free future,” said Gregory-Campbell Smith, Senior Business Developer Manager, Europe at Principle Power.

On the other hand, getting to utility-scale requires advancements in modularization and industrialization, for which Principle Power is leveraging its 15 years of experience and lessons learned in pre-commercial projects such as WindFloat Atlantic (25 MW, Portugal) and KOWL (50 MW, UK) to streamline everything from design concept to manufacturing to installation and load-out.