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Gas company joins North Sea Wind Power Hub consortium

By: Tom Russell 13/09/2017 TenneT

General Windfarms

European gas infrastructure company, Gasunie has announced that it is joining the North Sea Wind Power Hub. The company joins transmission system operators TenneT Netherlands, TenneT Germany, Energinet in investigating the feasibility of a large-scale, sustainable European energy supply system in the North Sea.

The consortium aims to realise a North Sea Wind Power Hub from 2030-2050 to support offshore wind farms with a total capacity of 100 GW – the consortium wants to make the European objectives feasible as well as affordable.

The hub will make a major contribution towards achieving the objectives of the Paris climate agreement (COP21) the consortium explained. In order to achieve the climate targets for Europe alone, the consortium forecasts that approximately 230GW of offshore wind energy capacity needs to be developed, of which 180GW in the North Sea.

The consortium explained that the volume of offshore wind energy required for the energy transition are so large that gas-based transmission and storage solutions shall be deployed in addition to electricity connections. Furthermore, it explained that the costs of energy transmission and long-term storage in gas form are considerably lower per unit of energy than if the energy is transmitted and stored in the form of electricity. In addition, combining the strengths of the electricity and gas supply system can provide a key boost to the use of hydrogen as a sustainable solution in numerous applications in industry, transportation, and the built environment.

The basic idea calls for the construction of one or more so-called ‘Power Link Islands’ in the central North Sea (possibly the Dogger Bank), with interconnections to the countries bordering the North Sea. The artificial islands are to be situated at a location that offers ideal wind conditions, i.e. frequent high wind speeds. The location facilitates the distribution and transmission of wind generated electricity via direct-current connections to the North Sea countries, which includes the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Norway, Germany, and Denmark. The electricity transmission cables are not only designed to transmit wind energy to the connected countries, but will simultaneously serve as interconnectors between the energy markets of the aforementioned countries, enabling them to trade electricity across their borders. In addition, the expected power surpluses can be converted to hydrogen for large scale transport to shore, storage or buffering purposes.

Gasunie stated it will contribute expertise in the transport and storage of gas via interconnected international grids, and managing the balance between the supply of and demand for energy. The company is also developing knowledge about the use of renewable gases such as hydrogen, and is looking into various conversion processes, including power-to-gas (hydrogen) conversion. This process uses electrolysis to store and transport (internationally) large quantities of renewable energy in the form of gas. Conversion into hydrogen is expected to play an important role in the North Sea Wind Power Hub system. The design incorporates the ability for wind-generated energy to be stored in the form of gas close to remote off-shore sources, and then brought ashore via the existing offshore gas infrastructure.

The consortium stated the Power Link Islands design will incorporate the following aspects:

Large wind farms far out at sea will be connected to a Power Link Island, effectively turning ‘far shore’ into ‘near-shore’; economies of scale will also reduce costs.
Direct-current connections will double as cross-border electricity connections (interconnectors), significantly increasing the efficiency of these connections, which generally amounts to approx. 40 percent.
Personnel, components, assembly workshops and installations for power-to-gas conversion can be stationed on the islands, thus optimising and simplifying offshore logistics as well as the conversion of electricity.
An area which has frequent strong winds will optimise the yield.
The water in this area is relatively shallow. The shallower the water, the lower the construction costs of the offshore wind farms and artificial islands.
An island in an area with a lot of space will provide the scale necessary to reduce costs (through economies of scale).

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Gas company joins North Sea Wind Power Hub consortium

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