Wind Energy – Floating Wind
Source Energie has been working for some time to identify both medium- and long-term sites for the development of floating offshore wind, and has now come together with ERM Dolphyn, a leading innovator in green hydrogen production.
The Celtic Sea offers significant opportunities for offshore energy development, in a strategic area, close to major energy demand centres. The Crown Estate fully recognize this opportunity and is currently carrying out a consultation process to identify suitable areas for offshore floating wind licenses.
The joint ambition is to seize the opportunity provided by the Celtic Sea, and to develop floating wind sites that produce green hydrogen rather than electricity. Green hydrogen is an ultra-low carbon fuel and forms an essential part of our low carbon future, reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.
The first site under development is called Dylan. It has a target deployment date of 2027/2028 and is located approximately 60 km off the Pembrokeshire coast, west of Milford Haven. This site has been identified on the basis of a phased site selection process, which has included regional resource and constraints analysis, and a high-level shipping and navigation review.
Both parties agree that the location is ideal, as it offers good energy generating conditions (>10m/s average wind speeds), strong expansion potential, and has a number of viable low impact pipeline routes to areas of existing and growing hydrogen demand.
Future expansion could provide more than 2GW of energy, which would provide enough hydrogen to make a material impact on local and national decarbonisation targets, sufficient to heat around one million homes with no carbon emissions at the point of use. The full-scale development would also bring several thousand much needed jobs and training opportunities to the region, through assembly, construction and operation.
The ERM Dolphyn opportunity in the Celtic Sea (Project Dylan) is supported by the Welsh Government Smart Living Initiative, as part of its commitment to developing the national hydrogen economy, as well as objectives from Wales’ Hydrogen Pathway for driving demand, green hydrogen production and inter-sectoral synergies.
