H-Wind

Title

H-Wind

Start Date    

Start Date 9th June 2021

End Date

8th June 2024

Funding Body

Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and Industry Partners – DP Energy, ESB, Equinor ASA, Gas Networks Ireland

Coordinator 

MaREI Centre, UCC

Research Partner

MaREI Centre

Project Industry Partners

Gas Networks Ireland (GNI), DP Energy, Electricity Supply Board (ESB), and Equinor ASA.

Principal Investigators

Dr Paul Leahy and Dr Nguyen Dinh

Project Manager

Dr Nguyen Dinh

Research Area

Offshore Renewable Energy, Energy Policy & Modelling

Introduction

H- Wind is a MaREI Centre industry-led collaborative research project on the production of green hydrogen from offshore wind farms. Thanks to Ireland having one of the world’s best offshore wind resources, there is an extensive opportunity for green hydrogen to be generated through electrolysis from offshore wind farms in Ireland.

This three year, multi-disciplinary project focuses on:-

  • Utilizing green hydrogen as the interface between offshore wind energy, gas networks and markets, electricity system and markets, and to develop new markets for zero-carbon green hydrogen.
  • To help assist Ireland in ensuring the delivery of the EU strategy on energy system integration, and to also help with the government’s 2050 targets.
  • Suitable hydrogen hubs for the Irish, Celtic and Atlantic Seas, which are necessary to meet the goal of this large-scale hydrogen production from offshore wind farms, along with hydrogen storage and transportation being an imperative component in the successful completion of this project.
  • The customer value chain, policy recommendations, hydrogen safety and procedures, and concepts for scalable and optimized offshore wind will also be researched.

All of these factors will contribute to significantly replacing Ireland’s reliability on fossil fuels which will effectively reduce GHG emissions, along with securing the national energy supply and enabling the exploration of new energy export markets.