Under the agreement, the two companies will work together to create hydrogen production sites at some of the offshore wind farm sites currently being developed by Capital Energy. The Spanish energy company already has a development pipeline of more than 7.5 gigawatts (GW) in both countries.
For Lhyfe and Capital Energy, the joint installation of offshore wind farms and hydrogen production sites would have considerable benefits, mainly in two key areas: economic benefits through the economies of scale achieved, and social benefits through the growing industrial overlap of the projects, given that a greater number and variety of suppliers and specialists will be required.
Such initiatives will also benefit the energy system as a whole as the wind energy produced in these wind farms would be more controllable, avoiding curtailments. And in some cases it would be possible to send less power to the grid (eg in case of congestion of the grid) and more to the hydrogen production unit, to which some of the wind turbines would be directly connected.
The collaboration agreement signed between Capital Energy and Lhyfe could be extended to other markets in the future.
Lhyfe is the only company in the world to have an operational prototype for offshore green hydrogen production. This system, known as Sealhyfe, was inaugurated in France in September 2022. The company aims to have 200 MW of green hydrogen production capacity by the end of 2026 and 3 GW by the end of 2030. With projects in 11 countries, Lhyfe has over 149 staff dedicated entirely to renewable hydrogen production.
Pablo Alcón, Offshore Director at Capital Energy said: “We have been committed with developing green hydrogen projects on the Iberian Peninsula for the past years and it was time to take the step into offshore, so we have joined forces with the best possible partner, Lhyfe, which has substantial experience in offshore hydrogen production. Through this alliance, we intend to use some of the energy generated by our offshore wind farms to produce hydrogen, which will help to drive the energy transition in a balanced way and solve potential bottlenecks in the electricity system. It will also increase the socio-economic benefits of our offshore projects, with greater investment and more skilled jobs.”
Taia Kronborg, Chief Business Officer at Lhyfe said: “This agreement with Capital Energy is a tremendous opportunity to foster the transition to clean energy through the large-scale production of green hydrogen at sea. Producing H2 via electrolysis at sea will maximise the immense potential of offshore wind energy. Countries with a coastline, such as Spain and Portugal, can drastically reduce their dependence on fossil fuels and improve their national energy security, while producing net-zero emissions and boosting local economies.”
