INSPIRE

Description

In the green hydrogen - the hydrogen from renewable energy such as offshore wind - the rare earth materials (REE) play an important role in the magnet and catalyst needed for both offshore wind and the hydrogen production, respectively. The high production concentration, a growing Chinese domestic market demand and an increased worldwide geopolitical political tensions can pose a high supply risk for Europe. REE production comes also with significant environmental impacts. Some estimations show that for every ton of REE, 2,000 tons of toxic waste, including radioactive waste, are produced. Therefore, as a key pathway for the EU’s net zero commitment, hydrogen produced by wind energy’s potential needs to be fully unlocked. This requires disruptive technologies to achieve this goal.

INSPIRE is born in response to the priority area “Development of offshore marine multi-use infrastructures to support the blue economy” to combine marine renewable energy constructions with hydrogen production, to develop multi-use structures and materials to reduce, recycle, reuse and being resistance to extreme environmental conditions. To reach these goals we have set up a consortium of industrial and research partners to optimize green hydrogen system design methodology with minimum REE, to deliver a reference design of an optimized open access 25x15 MW floating wind-hydrogen with minimized REE and optimized lifetime, to implement AI-based wind-hydrogen production optimization and to establish a pathway towards implementation in policy and industrial standards.

The core ambition of INSPIRE is to deliver innovative optimized design for REE reduction, and AI-based optimized operation for integrated hydrogen-wind system as well as road maps for EU policy makers.