The PosHYdon consortium has successfully produced green hydrogen on an operational offshore platform in the Dutch North Sea, marking a major milestone for offshore hydrogen development and demonstrating how renewable hydrogen can be integrated into existing offshore energy infrastructure.
The pilot project, located on Eni Energy Netherlands’ Q13a-A platform approximately 13 kilometres off the coast of Scheveningen, is the first in the world to combine offshore wind power, green hydrogen production and natural gas operations on a working offshore installation.
Powered by electricity generated from offshore wind farms, the project uses seawater that is first purified into demineralised water before being fed into an electrolyser to produce renewable hydrogen. The Q13a-A platform is also the first fully electrified gas production platform in the Dutch sector of the North Sea.
PosHYdon was launched to investigate whether hydrogen can be produced safely and efficiently at sea while making use of existing offshore infrastructure. The pilot will also assess how electrolysers perform under the fluctuating power output typical of offshore wind generation, while gathering operational data on maintenance requirements, costs and overall system performance.
The project is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and brings together a broad consortium of public and private organisations, including DEME, EBN, Eneco, Emerson, Gasunie, Hatenboerwater, Investa Expertise Centre, Iv, Nel Hydrogen, Eni, Nexstep, NGT, Nogat, TAQA and TNO.
According to the consortium, the initial phase of testing is focused on achieving stable hydrogen production before moving on to evaluate how the system responds to varying levels of renewable electricity. The operational approach has undergone extensive safety and environmental assessments, with the results expected to provide valuable insights for future commercial offshore hydrogen projects.
The pilot is seen as an important step toward scaling up offshore hydrogen production, particularly as countries around the North Sea look to harness growing offshore wind capacity for industrial decarbonisation. Producing hydrogen directly at sea could reduce pressure on electricity grids while enabling renewable energy to be transported through existing gas infrastructure or future hydrogen networks.
The consortium expects the technical and operational findings from the demonstration to be analysed during the coming months, with results scheduled to be shared with the wider hydrogen industry later this year.
As offshore wind capacity continues to expand across Europe, projects such as PosHYdon are helping to demonstrate how renewable electricity can be converted into green hydrogen offshore, supporting the development of an integrated North Sea energy system and accelerating the transition to low-carbon energy.