A report by RenewableUK sets out a series of measures to address the challenges developers face when building battery storage and green hydrogen projects alongside offshore wind farms.
Energy storage plays a critical role in providing greater flexibility to the UK’s energy system, ensuring electricity supply meets demand at all times. It helps to tackle the issue of variability of renewable energy generation. For example, in times of high winds, the grid cannot always transport the vast amounts of clean power being generated by wind, and although some grid upgrades are underway, other solutions are needed to make the best use of the UK’s abundant renewable energy resources. Batteries can provide short or long-term power, and green hydrogen generated using renewable electricity can be stored and used whenever it is needed, boosting the UK’s energy security.
The report, “Offshore wind co-location: integrating offshore wind with flexibility”, sets out the case for reforming the planning system and the rules governing financial support mechanisms to encourage more battery and green hydrogen projects to “co-locate” with offshore wind farms, sharing existing grid infrastructure to save time and cut costs.
Currently, just 3 megawatts (MW) of operational battery storage capacity is co-located with offshore wind in UK waters. A further 600MW of potential battery storage has consent to go ahead, and several offshore wind developers are exploring opportunities for co-location with green hydrogen.
The report contains ten policy recommendations for the Government, Ofgem, The Crown Estate, Crown Estate Scotland and local planning authorities, including:
Reforming the rules which restrict owners of offshore transmission cables and electricity substations from entering this new market, so that storage and green hydrogen projects can be built more easily alongside offshore wind
Reforming Contracts for Difference (CfD) auctions to encourage the co-location of energy storage and offshore wind, by enabling new metering arrangements and interactions with the Hydrogen Production Business Model which supports new projects.
Improving the efficiency of the planning system by enabling developers to seek consent for offshore wind and energy storage projects simultaneously rather than separately.
Building a network of pipelines to transport green hydrogen produced using electricity from offshore wind farms from where it’s generated to where it’s needed.
The report’s author, RenewableUK’s Senior Policy Analyst Yonna Vitanova, said:
“The UK has a great opportunity to build a more resilient energy system by integrating batteries and green hydrogen projects into offshore wind infrastructure, either at sea or near substations onshore. But at the moment neither the CfD process nor the planning system are set up in a way to encourage this.
“This report provide a blueprint for Government to address the challenges renewable energy developers face when considering co-location as part of their business plans. With clearer rules and regulations in place, the UK can unleash the benefits co-location can provide to the system and ultimately to billpayers”.
The report “Offshore wind co-location: integrating offshore wind with flexibility” is available here.
