At least ten new specialist companies have joined the AquaVentus consortium responsible for constructing a massive integrated 10 GW offshore North Sea wind-to-hydrogen project.

These include offshore wind technology developers Ørsted, Equinor and WindMW, together with offshore construction company Royal Boskalis Westminster. Between January to mid-March at least 8 companies joined including the offshore wind developer EnBW and Linde – a hydrogen production, transport, storage and distribution company, EDF’s hydrogen-oriented subsidiary Hynamics, Brunsbüttel Ports and the maritime service provider EMS.

These new entrants have been welcomed by the certification company DNV, the engineering specialist Offshore Wind Technologies (OWT), the seamless steel pipe manufacturer Vallourec, the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), the consultancy company Buckstay and lastly the logistics service provider Karlsson.

The project is divided into several sub-schemes including construction of the offshore wind farm with integrated hydrogen production, a large-scale hydrogen park, a central supply pipeline as well as various port infrastructures, research platform and various hydrogen-based maritime applications. On completion hydrogen will be transported to customers in north western Europe.

The first sub-project will involve installation of two 14 MW wind turbines, each with an electrolyser plant on its foundation platform, to be completed by 2025.