Floating wind and green hydrogen - fostering future Scottish-French research and development collaboration: report

Introduction

Setting the scene

Scotland and France are both uniquely placed to benefit from ongoing and future growth in the deployment of offshore wind. The territorial waters around Scotland host a quarter of Europe’s offshore wind resource ^[1], with France being second only to the United Kingdom (UK) in terms of the potential for the exploitation of wind energy ^[2].

Wind farm developers increasingly prioritise floating offshore wind turbines to take advantage of increased wind speeds further from shore. Floating turbines can operate in deeper waters due to their lack of fixed foundations (which can be expensive and logistically challenging to develop, especially in deeper waters). This is an important factor for developments around the coasts of Scotland, where waters are deeper than those elsewhere in the UK ^[1], and where floating platforms are likely to be more widely used.

Similarly, for future developments in French waters, floating wind technologies are expected to be the key to delivering offshore wind deployments in the south. Like Scotland, water depths in the Mediterranean Sea far exceed those along the west and north of the country ^[2]. However, a key challenge in delivering floating offshore wind farms far from shore is dealing with the substantial costs associated with transmitting large quantities of power back to land and often across significant distances to populated centres of demand.

As the offshore wind sector grows and searches for the most suitable sites, there will be an increasing requirement to transmit and store significant amounts of energy across long distances. By providing an efficient means of storing and transporting energy produced from renewable sources in remote locations, hydrogen is seen by many as a key technology in this area. Adopting hydrogen across the energy system could also help to reduce the impact of renewable intermittency.

Furthermore, technical challenges may restrict the scope for electrification to deliver deep decarbonisation in energy-intensive sectors such as heavy-duty transport and in heavy industries. For example, scaling batteries to provide sufficient storage capacity for long-distance journeys may be impractical.

These limitations suggest that alternative, decarbonised fuels such as hydrogen may be required. As a result, there is widespread interest in developing hydrogen production projects to demonstrate the feasibility and cost of generating hydrogen from renewable resources. Due to the impact of intermittency on the production costs of hydrogen, the relatively high load factors associated with floating offshore wind farms make these an attractive source of power for generating hydrogen, or a hydrogen derivative.

Confirming the role that green hydrogen^[1] can play in the future energy system is a high priority in both Scotland and France. £100m of capital support from 2021-26, was confirmed in the Scottish Government’s recent Hydrogen Policy Statement ^[3]. Meanwhile, in its ‘Stratégie Nationale’ for hydrogen, the French government committed to providing €7 billion of investment to support hydrogen developments ^[4], a core element of the French green recovery plan announced earlier in 2020.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of international and inter-regional collaboration in realising these ambitions. Innovative floating offshore wind and offshore hydrogen production projects will face technical and logistical challenges associated with operating in harsh marine environments. Innovation, skills and supply chain developments will be required to address these challenges.

This research study aimed to identify research priorities and collaboration opportunities of joint interest between the Scottish and French supply chains. This will inform the development of policies which will encourage organisations in the two countries to work together. Specifically, this study sought to review the technical status, shared challenges and potential collaboration opportunities in Scotland and in France for the allied floating offshore wind and offshore hydrogen production sectors.

Methodology

The sequence of project activities is outlined in Figure 2. This study began with an evidence-based review of the status of the technologies and innovation activity in the floating wind and hydrogen sectors in Scotland and in France. The analysis narrated in this report sets up the context for these two sectors in the energy transition and identifies cross-cutting technical challenges faced by developers in both sectors (and those seeking to integrate the two technology sets). Subsequent project activity concerned engaging with key industry and innovation agency stakeholders to elicit feedback on prior experiences of collaborative innovation projects. Participants verified the project team’s analysis of the technical and innovation challenges foreseen in floating wind and hydrogen. They also provided perspectives on the best means of supporting collaborative activities which might contribute to addressing these challenges. Feedback from these stakeholders has been used to formulate recommendations to the Scottish Government.

Evidence review

The evidence review carried out included an analysis of the policy landscape (including national and multilateral development strategies) and innovation support context in the two countries. This clarified which programmes exist to facilitate research and development activities. The review looked at how these have typically been accessed by organisations working within the target sectors in both countries.

In undertaking this review of evidence, the project team surveyed academic and trade literature to establish the status of innovation activities in the two target sectors. Findings from prior research on this, undertaken by sector specialist organisations and trade associations, were reviewed.

To summarise the prevailing policy context, the team also reviewed key position papers and legislation introduced by governments and relevant departments in Scotland and France. Finally, industry publications and innovation project reports were used to identify the key innovation and funding programmes which have delivered projects identified as having previously contributed to technical improvements in the two focus sectors.

This evidence review focused on clarifying the degree to which existing and planned support programmes have helped to deliver upon development ambitions in these sectors. Findings from these investigations are summarised in this report. This analysis was also used to inform the design of engagement activities, concerned with exploring stakeholder experience of carrying out (collaborative) innovation activity in these sectors.

Stakeholder engagement

The second priority for the study concerned stakeholder engagement activities aimed at verifying evidence review findings and broadening the range of technical development challenges considered.

In delivering the study described, the project team conducted:

• an online questionnaire, intended to provide quantitative insight from a broader pool of stakeholders than could logistically be included in subsequent activities. Questions sought details from supply chain stakeholders on their participation in the floating wind and hydrogen sectors in Scotland and in France, and in collaborative innovation. The survey was also used to gather initial feedback on desired support mechanisms for future research collaboration;
• expert interviews, with stakeholders in both Scotland and France known to be actively pursuing and/or facilitating collaborative innovation activities in the floating wind and hydrogen sectors. These interviews explored stakeholder experience of joint working initiatives and collected feedback on aspects to consider in formulating project recommendations;
• discursive workshops with supply chain participants from both Scotland and France, which provided the opportunity for the project team to share project findings and draft recommendations with stakeholders to elicit feedback and to validate the research already undertaken. Breakout discussions with smaller groups (10 or fewer) stakeholders were used to explore innovation support needs in floating wind and hydrogen, and to elicit feedback from stakeholders on the draft recommendations developed by the project team. Participants were guided through a structured discussion, and their views were recorded anonymously for subsequent analysis by the project team.

36 questionnaire responses were received, from 12 organisations in Scotland and 24 in France. Five expert interviews were conducted, with three Scottish stakeholder organisations and two in France. Of the workshops, three were held. The first, which had a technical focus and was targeted at Scottish stakeholders only, drew 31 attendees representing 20 organisations. The second workshop, also with a technical focus and for French stakeholders only, had 21 attendees representing 15 organisations. The third workshop brought together a mixed group of Scottish and French stakeholders to discuss collaborative innovation initiatives, with 16 participants representing 11 organisations. Of those organisations, four were based in France and seven were based in Scotland.

Stakeholder organisations in both Scotland and in France who are active in either or both the floating wind and/or hydrogen sectors were invited to take part in these forums. A press release in both English and French was circulated among mainstream and industry media organisations in both countries, and was also shared widely on social media by the project consortium organisations. This press release encouraged stakeholders to contact the project team to register their interest in informing the research undertaken. All of the organisations who contacted the project team were involved in the subsequent activities. Further stakeholders with demonstrated experience in floating wind and hydrogen were identified by the project team based upon evidence review findings, and were directly invited to take part in engagement activities. Some of the respondents and participants who took part in project engagement activities were not based in Scotland or France (especially for those representing multinational supply chain organisations, in particular including staff based elsewhere in the UK). These individuals were asked to reflect specifically on their organisation’s activities in Scotland and in France.

Participant organisations were drawn from across the full value chains relating to each sector, from:

• technology developers,
• manufacturers,
• technical service providers,
• project developers,
• utilities and energy majors,
• trade associations,
• research organisations (both academic and private sector),
• enterprise agencies, and
• policy makers at all levels, including representatives of the Scottish Government and local, regional and national government in France.

These engagement activities were used to assess supply chain and wider stakeholder appetite for collaboration between organisations in the two countries. These engagement activities sought feedback from value chain participants:

• to understand their sentiment towards, and experience of, existing support programmes,
• to gather their feedback on the recommendations developed by the project team for future programmes, and
• to document their priorities for the support that will be required from the Scottish Government and others to ensure maximum development in these sectors.

The primary aim of these activities was to inform the recommendations set out in this report for the Scottish Government. These recommendations propose policy interventions and support schemes which should be developed to support (collaborative) innovation activities in these target sectors and geographies.