Offshore power and hydrogen networks for Europe's North Sea

TL;DR

This study models Europe's North Sea energy system to determine optimal offshore wind and hydrogen infrastructure, revealing that meshed networks and hydrogen significantly increase renewable integration and reduce costs.

Contribution

It introduces an open-source optimization model that endogenously determines offshore infrastructure deployment, highlighting the benefits of meshed grids and hydrogen for renewable integration.

Findings

Up to 310 GW offshore wind with point-to-point connections.

Up to 420 GW offshore wind with meshed networks and hydrogen.

Hydrogen transports twice as much energy as electricity offshore.

Abstract

The European North Sea has a vast renewable energy potential and can be a powerhouse for Europe's energy transition. However, currently there is uncertainty about how much offshore wind energy can be integrated, whether offshore grids should be meshed and to what extent offshore hydrogen should play a role. To address these questions, we use the open-source energy system optimization model PyPSA-Eur to model a European carbon-neutral sector-coupled energy system in high spatial and temporal resolution. We let the model endogenously decide how much offshore wind is deployed and which infrastructure is used to integrate the offshore wind. We find that with point-to-point connections like we have today, 310 GW offshore wind can be integrated in the North Sea. However, if we allow meshed networks and hydrogen, we find that this can be raised to 420 GW with cost savings up to 15 billion euros per year. Furthermore, we only observe significant amounts of up to 75 GW of floating wind turbines in the North Sea if we have offshore hydrogen production. Generally, the model opts for offshore wind integration through a mix of both electricity and hydrogen infrastructure. However, the bulk of the offshore energy is transported as hydrogen, which is twice as much as the amount transported as electricity. Moreover, we find that the offshore power network is mainly used for offshore wind integration, with only a small portion used for inter-country transmission.