CIP plans large-scale hydrogen island in Denmark backed by 10 GW of offshore wind

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners is planning to build an artificial island for renewable hydrogen production in the North Sea, backed by 10 GW of offshore wind, the company said May 20.

Built on the Danish part of Dogger Bank in the North Sea, BrintO – meaning Hydrogen Island – will supply large volumes of green hydrogen by 2030, amounting to around 1 million mt/year at full capacity, fund manager CIP said.

The announcement comes two days after EU North Sea countries lifted their combined offshore wind targets to 65 GW by 2030, up from installed capacity of 15 GW across Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium at present.

"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," CIP Partner Thomas Dalsgaard 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."

CIP said the hydrogen produced could be exported to nearby countries and used to produce sustainable transport fuels.

The project envisages around 275 km of hydrogen pipelines to bring the renewable gas to shore.

Denmark has a target of 4-6 GW of installed electrolyzer capacity by 2030. The EU aims to produce 10 million mt/year of hydrogen by 2030, requiring in the region of 80 GW of electrolysis, and import a further 10 million mt/year by that date.

CIP said the 1 million mt/year of production would correspond to around 7% of expected EU hydrogen demand by 2030.

The fund manager plans to invest Eur100 billion ($106 billion) in green energy projects this decade. It has around Eur18 billion of assets across 10 funds.

S&P Global Commodity Insights assessed the cost of producing renewable hydrogen via alkaline electrolysis in Europe at Eur10.40/kg ($11.01/kg) May 19 (Netherlands, including capex), based on month-ahead power prices, down from Eur11.36/kg a month before.