Germany wants to be climate neutral by 2045. An ambitious goal in which renewable energies play a central – if not the decisive – role. The offshore wind power industry has clear ideas. How realistic is their implementation?
The offshore industry is convinced that a significantly faster expansion of wind farms and entry into hydrogen production on the high seas are essential for achieving the climate targets.
The new federal government must noticeably increase the pace on this subject, demanded the chief executive of the wind industry and hydrogen association WAB, Jens Assheuer, in Bremerhaven. “We have to step on the gas now to achieve the goals.”
When expanding offshore capacities, an intermediate target of 35 gigawatts (GW) of installed capacity by 2035 is necessary – to which the need for green hydrogen from wind energy at sea must also be taken into account. It is currently around 7.8 GW. The federal government is planning an offshore expansion of 40 GW by 2040. In addition to Assheuer, Lower Saxony’s Environment and Energy Minister Olaf Lies (SPD) and Bremen’s Senator for Economic Affairs Kristina Vogt (left) found “Far too little”.
“We know that the potential is at least 60 gigawatts. And we will need them in order to achieve the ambitious goals for climate protection, ”emphasized Vogt at the start of the Windforce Conference 2021 in Bremerhaven. Around 200 representatives from politics, business and science will take part in the industry meeting until Wednesday.
The offshore industry is urging rapid approval procedures for areas for hydrogen production directly on the wind turbines. After production, the hydrogen would then have to be brought ashore by ship or pipeline.
For green hydrogen, wind, sun, biomass or hydropower are used as renewable energy sources to operate water electrolysis. Water (H2O) is electrified, splitting into elemental hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2). Hydrogen can then be stored in tanks under high pressure.
Lies warned the potential coalition partners in Berlin that they wanted to solve every question in the “small-small” way when it came to renewable energies. He proposed a commission similar to the coal commission. The question is how socially acceptable is implemented. For example, it must be determined how many wind turbines there should be on land and at sea and how much photovoltaics there should be. “That has to be clarified once, and in the end there has to be a result that is recorded in parliament,” said the SPD politician.
The ordinance on the allocation of other energy generation areas in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) came into force last week. It paves the way for the first tenders in 2022. Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier (CDU) recently described the production of green hydrogen at sea as a “real future topic with high innovation potential”. It could make important contributions to the decarbonization of German industry.
So far, the electrolysis for hydrogen production has only run on land. According to the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation in the Coastal Sea and the EEZ, a good year ago 27 offshore wind farms with 1501 turbines and 7.4 GW of installed capacity were connected to the grid in the German areas of the North and Baltic Seas. It is currently around 7.8 GW. Other parks are approved. The EEZ is the seaward area of the territorial sea (12 nautical mile zone) up to a maximum of the 200 nautical mile limit.
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
