Ballard's 1-MW fuel-cell system to be used in Dutch offshore wind farm

Canada’s Ballard Power Systems Inc (NASDAQ:BLDP; TSE:BLDP) said on Monday that it has won an order to supply a stationary fuel-cell system with a peak power capacity of 1 MW for a green hydrogen project at the Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm in Dutch waters.

Ballard’s customer is CrossWind, a joint venture between Shell Plc (LON:SHEL) and Dutch utility Eneco, which started building the 759-MW offshore wind farm some three months ago.

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Hollandse Kust Noord is expected to generate at least 3.3 TWh of electricity per year. CrossWind plans to use various new technologies to manage its intermittent power generation, including using wind power to produce electrolytic hydrogen for energy storage. Ballard will supply a containerised fuel-cell solution that will use the hydrogen to produce dispatchable electricity, the company said.

The fuel-cells system delivery is expected in 2024. The Hollandse Kust Noord wind farm is slated to come online by the end of 2023.

"This project is an exciting proof point on how hydrogen and PEM fuel cells can provide an effective storage, load-following and firming solution for intermittent renewables. We are excited to be a part of this milestone demonstration project with CrossWind to prove out the reliability and efficiency of Ballard fuel cells, initially at megawatt scale," said Søren Østergaard Hansen, General Manager, Marine and Stationary, Ballard Power Systems Europe A/S.

Added Maria Kalogera, CrossWind’s Innovation Manager: "In CrossWind, we are committed to demonstrate baseload power on a megawatt scale for a single full-scale wind turbine generator. We will introduce, for the first time, an offshore combination of battery storage and round-trip hydrogen integrated in an offshore wind farm.”