Coming soon: a Hydrogen Island in the North Sea by 2030

Wind power investment specialist Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) plans to build an artificial island dedicated to large-scale production of green hydrogen from offshore wind in the Danish part of the North Sea, the company said.

Called “BrintØ” or Hydrogen Island, the facility is expected to be able to supply abundant green hydrogen by 2030 and will be a crucial step in securing Europe’s future green energy supply, CIP said in a statement issued on Friday.

The BrintØ project will provide a major contribution to reaching the ambitious targets set by the Danish government earlier this year, as well as the transnational political will demonstrated at the North Sea Summit held this week in Esbjerg, Denmark.

“The Danish, German, Dutch, and Belgian ambitions for the North Sea show the rest of the world how the green transition can be turbocharged if you dare to think big, internationally and in integrated systems,” Thomas Dalsgaard, Partner at CIP, said in a statement.

“Green energy will be harvested on a large scale out at sea, tied together by energy islands, converted into green hydrogen, and transported across borders via offshore hydrogen infrastructure. The opportunities are significant, and the Danish BrintØ is the first step in that direction,” Dalsgaard said.

The company said BrintØ and other adjacent energy islands will produce large amounts of green hydrogen from offshore wind for export to nearby countries, such as Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium, but did not specify the target quantity.

With BrintØ, Denmark stands on the brink of a unique opportunity to secure a strategic role in developing a network of offshore infrastructure, spanning from energy islands to power cables and hydrogen pipelines, across the North Sea’s territorial boundaries.

It will create a foundation for the production of sustainable green fuels via Power-to-X for trucks, ships and aircrafts, the company said.