SENSE-HUB: Offshore wind and floating solar for affordable green hydrogen

Optimal integration offshore renewable electricity

Solar Enhanced North Sea Energy Hub (SENSE-HUB) will accelerate the rollout of offshore solar into offshore renewable energy systems in the 4-years project. 'To success in a reliable and stable future Dutch energy system driven by offshore wind power, the integration with floating solar, hydrogen and storage is crucial', says Iratxe Gonzalez Aparicio, Portfolio Manager System Integration Wind Energy at TNO.

Iratxe continues, 'The addition of offshore solar with wind can be of critical importance to produce more constant renewable supply and have higher amounts of green hydrogen production at lower costs.'

Project activities

The consortium aims to understand and remove the implementation barriers for future SENSE-HUBs from a technical, economical, ecological, legal and societal perspective. Project activities will range from the demonstration of an optimized offshore solar system in the North Sea by Oceans of Energy, ecological monitoring and modelling to understand impacts of hybrid energy parks by NIOZ and Deltares. The demonstration will take place near by the Q13a offshore production platform.

The SENSE-HUB concept will be validated in the TNO SWITCH Lab and developing techno-economic system designs at GW-scale will be done by TNO, Primo-Marine, and Advanced Electromagnetics.

Developing the necessary legal regulatory frameworks for such integrated energy systems will be done by NewGroundLaw and Primo-Marine. Deltares will identify the relevant stakeholders and will inform them regularly about the knowledge developed in this project.

Solar Enhanced North Sea Energy Hubs event

On 5 December 2024, Oceans of Energy, TNO, and Deltares hosted the Solar Enhanced North Sea Energy Hubs event. This event provided a unique platform for professionals in the offshore solar, wind, and hydrogen industries to network, share insights, and explore potential collaborations.

Part of the SENSE-HUB and North Sea 2 projects, the event focused on how combining different energy systems in the North Sea can create a stable and reliable energy supply. It explored the synergies between renewable energy sources and addressed technical, economic, legal, and environmental challenges.

Partners

The consortium is led by TNO with partners:

• Oceans of Energy,
• Deltares,
• NIOZ,
• Primo Marine,
• NewGroundLaw and Advanced Electromagnetics.

The project has been made possible by TopSector ‘Energiesubsidie’ of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate.