26 May 2023 Appeal: the offshore hydrogen industry calls for clear targets for electrolysis on the high seas in the National Hydrogen Strategy. An additional 10 gigawatts (GW) of offshore electrolysis capacity should be anchored in the Federal Government's update of the National Hydrogen Strategy (NHS). The outstanding potential of the North Sea to act as a green power plant must be taken into account. Clear and lasting prospects are needed in order to build value chains and make investments. The NHS must now build on the Federal Government's declarations of Esbjerg and Ostend and define a clear role for offshore hydrogen.
The signatories therefore call for the following cornerstones to be included in the NHS:
1) Anchor a target of 10 GW of offshore electrolysis capacity by 2035 in the NHS. The designation of a first "other energy generation area" (SEN-1) created an important milestone that will provide sites for a total of 1 GW of generation capacity by 2030. Companies along the entire value chain stand ready to advance the development of an offshore hydrogen industry in Germany and Europe. The prerequisite is that the associated supply chains are given a lasting perspective through the NHS. Germany's contribution to an interconnected European hydrogen industry should therefore be set in the NHS at 10 GW of generation capacity for green hydrogen at sea by 2035.
2) Advance European offshore hydrogen network planning. In Ostend, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom jointly set themselves the target of reaching around 30 GW of electrolysis capacity on land and at sea by 2030 and of expanding their production still further by 2050. Connecting production sites at sea and developing a dedicated offshore hydrogen pipeline infrastructure as part of national and European network development planning is a central building block in this. This target must become part of the NHS and must additionally provide for interconnection with further actors, such as the Netherlands, Denmark, Scotland (UK) or Norway. 3) Secure long-term offshore hydrogen contracts and create reliable framework conditions.
Offshore electrolysis from wind power holds great potential. A binding and stable legal framework for the production, transport and offtake of hydrogen produced at sea is central to increasing investment certainty along the entire value chain. The objective must be to make Germany the technology leader for hydrogen production at sea. This needs to be flanked by reliable incentives for individual sectors to use green hydrogen (e.g. through carbon contracts for difference or quotas). Equally, for reasons of planning certainty and economic viability, the Federal Government must support appropriate, predictable and stable grid fees for the infrastructure. Long-term contracts for generation and demand are important and, given uncertain market developments, require the cost-difference compensation provided by instruments such as H2Global or the EU Hydrogen Bank for Germany and the EU.