Offshore wind central to Ireland’s renewable hydrogen ambitions

Garrett Monaghan and Susan Kinlan of Pinsent Masons were commenting after the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) published Ireland’s national hydrogen strategy on 12 July.

The purpose of the strategy, published following consultation with industry and other stakeholders last year, is to develop a hydrogen sector and in turn “deliver decarbonisation in the energy sector and enhance energy security”, the DECC said.

The strategy, it added, will provide a “long-term strategic vision of what role hydrogen will play in our future economy”, it added, recognising that such a vision “will help to reduce commercial risk and ultimately help to drive investment from the private sector”. It acknowledged that there are uncertainties in relation to the cost and potential end-use of hydrogen, as well as in relation to the infrastructure, skills and supply chains needed to deliver on it, currently.

According to the strategy, Ireland envisages large scale generation of hydrogen to be utilised in power generation and industrial heating, as well as aviation and shipping fuel,  from the mid- to late-2030s up until 2050. Before the end of this decade, it expects hydrogen to be used widely for powering heavy goods vehicles, buses, and trains.

In line with RePowerEU, the Irish government also hopes the country can become a net exporter of renewable hydrogen. The new strategy anticipates Ireland being able to export hydrogen at scale from the late 2030s onwards. However, the Irish government recognised that “current hydrogen production capacity [in the country] is effectively zero” and that “developing the scale of renewable generation required to support an export market will take time”. It said work would also need to be undertaken to “better assess the competitiveness of Irish produced renewable hydrogen compared to international price benchmarks and the benefits that a future hydrogen export market could deliver to the Irish economy”.

The strategy reinforces existing policy where Ireland’s emerging offshore wind industry will play in scaling up production of renewable hydrogen in the country.

The Irish government has set a target of increasing offshore wind capacity to 5GW by 2030. In addition, it has set a target of a further 2GW of offshore wind capacity to be in development by 2030 for the purposes of supporting the production of green hydrogen.

In the new strategy, the government committed to develop commercial business models to underpin demand and support green hydrogen. A new national industrial strategy for offshore wind is also to be published next year. The government said that strategy would outline “how Ireland can maximise the economic opportunity arising from the production of offshore wind energy including the skills required to support this”.

Garrett Monaghan said: “We are seeing a surge this week in Irish energy and related policy announcements that will have long-lasting impacts. Top of the list is the release of the much-anticipated national hydrogen strategy. Although this is a vital first formal marker on how Ireland will participate in the emerging global, green, hydrogen economy, the critical next step will be the integration of the hydrogen strategy into the imminent industrialisation policy due from Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment,” he said.

Susan Kinlan added: “The national hydrogen strategy, with its focus on green hydrogen, reinforces Ireland’s longer-term vision for offshore wind energy, targeting 20GW of offshore production by 2040 and at least 37GW by 2050. The publication of the policy is significant step towards harnessing our offshore wind potential in Ireland.”

The strategy was welcomed by trade body Wind Energy Ireland, which said it would be critical to Ireland cutting its carbon emissions and achieving energy independence.

Noel Cunniffe, Wind Energy Ireland chief executive, said: “Irish wind farms will generate the power we need to produce green hydrogen to help decarbonise sectors like aviation, shipping, heavy transport and to provide a secure source of renewable electricity for the grid. Our members are already working to make this happen. We have the projects, the people and the expertise. This strategy gives the direction and the confidence we need to attract investment, to make Ireland a European leader in green hydrogen production.”

“Now we need to accelerate, to bring industry and government to work together to deliver the targets set out in this strategy. There is no time left to lose and an enormous prize to win in a clean, secure, Irish energy system supported by green hydrogen,” he said.

Publication of the new national hydrogen strategy came a day prior to the official launch of the new Maritime Area Regulatory Authority (MARA) in Ireland. It will be responsible for assessing applications for Maritime Area Consents (MACs), which offshore wind developers need for their projects, as well as granting licences for certain activities in the maritime area.