Do offshore wind and hydrogen mix? Danes think so

The Danish PtX strategy

Photo by Nicholas Doherty on Unsplash

This article started when I noticed two different Danish wind power manufacturing companies investing in hydrogen solutions. The companies are Vestas and Stiesdal.

Vestas is a household name in the wind industry as the largest global wind turbine manufacturer. Stiesdal may not be such a household name, but its founder was instrumental in creating the current Danish (and international) wind industry.

Stiesdal is a new company founded in 2016 by Henrik Stiesdal, a prominent innovator pioneering wind power technology with a lifetime achievement award from the European Patent Office (see video 1).

Video 1: Henrik Stiesdal EPO documentary (Source)

Henrik Stiesdal created the Danish Concept: the current three-blade wind turbines design (see figure 2) instead of two blades, the previous dominant configuration.

Figure 2: Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash

Later on, as wind blades’ size increased, manufacturers struggled with multi-part turbine blades. To address this issue, Henrik Stiesdal created the IntegralBlade, a method that uses a single mold and vacuum to mold the fiberglass and inject and harden the epoxy resin, creating a single blade (Figure 3).

Figure 3: A 94 meter long integralblade (Source)

IntegralBlade creation happened when Henrik Stiesdal was Chief Technology Officier at Siemens Wind Power from 2004 to 2014 when he retired. In 2016, he created Stiesdal, where he innovated once more: the TetraSpar, the first fully industrialized offshore wind foundation, previously covered here (Figure 4).

Figure 4: A TetraSpar demonstration prototype assembled in a harbor being put to sea (Source)

So when covering the TetraSpar, a floating foundation for offshore wind turbines, and studying Stiesdal as a whole, I was surprised to see it branch out to hydrogen, energy storage, and carbon capture.

And then I find out that Vestas is investing in Hysata, an Australian spin-off with a hydrolysis technology with a 95% efficiency — 41.5 kWh per H2. Figure 5 sums up Hysata’s performance.

Figure 5: Hysata’s hydrolysis technology synthesis (Source)

Coincidence? It does not seem like it. The Dane policies vie for a more extensive and integrated part of the renewable energy cycle.

To effectively work as an alternative to fossil fuels, renewable energy must join energy generation with energy storage and beyond:

1. At the base, renewable generation and energy storage with batteries powers a fuel switch from fossil fuels to electricity;
2. Another tier deals with sectors that can fuel switch to electric energy but batteries can not power, like heavy transport;
3. Finally, some sectors can not fuel-switch to electricity and need a renewable non-pollutant fuel, like the steel industry.

Since the 1970s, the Dane efforts focused on renewable generation via wind power. Meanwhile, battery technology slipped from Danish attention, and now a substantial role in the market seems challenging.

But the green hydrogen ecosystem is not mature. It provides a door to levels 2 and 3, where the Danes can still aspire to a position similar to their current wind turbine manufacturing lead.

Figure 6 shows how hydrogen positions between the different energy storage technologies.

Figure 6: Energy storage technologies (Source, pg. 73)

The PtX-Alliance between the Danish sectorial wind and hydrogen associations is an example of Denmark’s hydrogen plans. It aims to implement the Power to X strategy, producing green hydrogen with wind and solar power. In particular, offshore wind in Denmark has the potential to power green hydrogen production.

Denmark’s strategy seeks a 4 to 6 GW hydrogen electrolysis capacity by 2030. Hydrogen production aims at the local market and exports to neighboring countries like Germany. Figure 7 shows the current status of Danish hydrogen projects.

Figure 7: Hydrogen projects status in Denmark (Source)

An example of the Danish integrated view over energy is the 2022 joining of the Danish sectorial associations for wind, solar, and energy into one unified Green Power Denmark. Sectorially, the Danes increasingly see the power sector as one single entity: renewable generation and PtoX come hand in hand.

Strangely enough, the Danish association for hydrogen still exists as an independent entity.

Finally, it is important to stress that Danish objectives include dealing with the climatic emergency via carbon capture.

The PtX strategy ambitions to capture CO2 for storage or use to make green fuels. Denmark created a research center focusing solely on CO2 capture. This outlook also explains why a company like Stiesdal has a branch solely dedicated to carbon capture.