Vestas to trial hydrogen service vessel at Belgian offshore wind farm

Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas Wind Systems A/S (CPH:VWS) today said it will trial an offshore wind service vessel using hydrogen as part of efforts to reduce carbon emissions from its own operations and achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.

As part of a pilot programme in partnership with Windcat Workboats, Vestas will test what is described as the world’s first hydrogen-powered crew transfer vessel (CTV) at the 370-MW Norther Wind Farm in the Belgian North Sea from July 15 till the end of the year.

This vessel, developed with Windcat Workboats’s sister company CMB.TECH, is powered by a dual-fuel solution and can run on hydrogen in a combination with marine gas oil. It is currently expected to be powered mostly by grey hydrogen but Vestas aims to use the pilot to deliver a pathway for green hydrogen once it becomes mature.

The programme will allow Vestas to examine scalable approaches for hydrogen usage. The aim is to study opportunities and limitations of hydrogen-fuelled vessels in daily operations.

The company explained that carbon emissions related to offshore operations now represent one third of its scope 1and 2 emissions, while the new CTV could reduce emissions by 37% compared to a traditional vessel.

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!