Hollandse Kust Noord Wind Farm to Demonstrate Ballard Fuel Cells
The Netherlands’ new offshore wind farm Hollandse Kust Noord seeks to address the variability of wind speed and output with innovative new solutions. Being developed by CrossWind, a joint venture between Shell and Eneco, the project will incorporate a fuel cell system from Ballard Power Systems for a 1 MW stationary power project.
“In CrossWind, we are committed to demonstrating baseload power on a megawatt scale for a single full-scale wind turbine generator,” said Maria Kalogera, Crosswind’s Innovation Manager. “We will introduce, for the first time, an offshore combination of battery storage and round-trip hydrogen integrated into an offshore wind farm. It’s exciting to have Ballard on board and integrate their fuel cell solutions in our project.”
CrossWind intends to use various new technologies to manage intermittent wind power generation by demonstrating for a single full-scale wind turbine solution that can time-shift the electricity supply profile from periods with high wind speeds to those with lower wind speeds. The project is also addressing the concept of producing green hydrogen by using only renewable energy sources to break down water into its constituent elements of hydrogen and oxygen. The project will use electricity from wind power for water electrolysis to produce truly green hydrogen for energy storage. Ballard’s hydrogen fuel cells will utilize the green hydrogen as fuel to regenerate stable and dispatchable power.
Ballard will supply a containerized fuel cell power solution with a peak power capacity of 1 MW, with delivery expected in 2024. This will be Ballard’s second stationary power project deployed in Europe for peak shaving power generation applications.
“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,” said Søren Østergaard Hansen, General Manager, Marine and Stationary, Ballard Power Systems Europe. “We are excited to be a part of this milestone demonstration project with CrossWind to prove the reliability and efficiency of Ballard fuel cells, initially at megawatt scale.”
The Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind project is under construction located approximately 11 miles off the coast of the province of North Holland. CrossWind will install 69 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 11 MW, to provide a have a capacity of 759 MW to generate at least 3.3 TWh per year. Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy is supplying the wind turbines with Van Oord for the supply of the foundations and the cables and the installation of the wind turbines at sea.
The project is one of the first new generation of wind farms that looks to expand the capabilities by integrating new solutions including hydrogen production, fuels cell, and solar panels for increased energy production.