France-based green hydrogen producer Lhyfe and Spanish company Capital Energy have teamed up to develop offshore renewable hydrogen projects in Spain and Portugal.

The two companies will work to develop hydrogen production sites at some of the offshore wind farm locations currently being developed by Capital Energy.

Capital Energy has a development pipeline of 7.5GW in the two countries.

Lhyfe and Capital Energy claim that developing offshore wind farms and hydrogen production sites concurrently can result in economic and social benefits.

They note “economic benefits through the economies of scale achieved, and social benefits through the growing industrial overlap of the projects, given that a greater number and variety of suppliers and specialists will be required”.

Their partnership agreement has the potential to expand to other markets.

Lhyfe chief business officer Taia Kronborg stated: “This agreement with Capital Energy is a tremendous opportunity to foster the transition to clean energy through the large-scale production of green hydrogen at sea. Producing H₂ via electrolysis at sea will maximise the immense potential of offshore wind energy.

“Countries with a coastline, such as Spain and Portugal, can drastically reduce their dependence on fossil fuels and improve their national energy security, while producing net-zero emissions and boosting local economies.”

Lhyfe claims to have the only operational prototype unit for offshore green hydrogen production. Named Sealhyfe, the system was inaugurated in France in 2022.

The company aims to have a production capacity of 200MW of green hydrogen by the end of 2026 and 3GW by the end of 2030.

Capital Energy offshore director Pablo Alcón stated: “We have been committed to developing green hydrogen projects on the Iberian Peninsula for the past years and it was time to take the step into offshore, so we have joined forces with the best possible partner, Lhyfe, which has substantial experience in offshore hydrogen production.

“Through this alliance, we intend to use some of the energy generated by our offshore wind farms to produce hydrogen, which will help to drive the energy transition in a balanced way and solve potential bottlenecks in the electricity system. It will also increase the socioeconomic benefits of our offshore projects, with greater investment and more skilled jobs.”