Techno-economic analysis for floating offshore wind and offshore green hydrogen

This paper describes a techno-economic model for exploiting the Celtic Sea wind resource through direct production of hydrogen offshore. The model conceives a modular approach with eight 510 MW floating windfarms, each with an electrolyser system and export compressor mounted on a jacket. The model ensures an uninterrupted hydrogen supply to an industrial cluster (16.4 te.H2/h) by incorporating salt cavern hydrogen storage. During periods of no power generation, baseload power is provided from hydrogen fuel cells. The base-case model with a Discount Rate of 6% returned an Levelised Cost of Hydrogen (LCoH) of 7.25 pound per kg of hydrogen in 2023. The LCoH shows strong sensitivity to Discount Rate and electrolyser system efficiency. Electrolyser systems and wind turbine generator floating structures are relatively new technologies not yet deployed at the GW scale, and benefit significantly from learning rates, which have the potential to substantially lower the LCoH.