Offshore H2 project HOPE wins €20 mn grant by European Commission

The Hydrogen Offshore Production for Europe (HOPE) project consortium has signed a €20 million grant agreement with the European Commission, selected for funding under the Clean Hydrogen Partnership call for proposals co-financed by the European Union. The facility is expected to come on stream in mid-2026.

The HOPE involves developing, building and operating the first 10 MW offshore hydrogen production unit in the North Sea, off the coast of Belgium, by 2026. The aim of the project is to demonstrate the technical and financial viability of this offshore project, and of pipeline transport for supplying onshore customers.

The grant covers a period of five years, including three years to develop the demonstrator and two years to demonstrate the technical reliability and commercial viability of the model. 

Coordinated by Lhyfe and implemented by eight European partners, the project targets up to 4 tonnes of green hydrogen produced a day. For the first time in the world, green hydrogen will be produced at sea and then exported ashore via a composite pipeline to supply the needs of the regional ecosystem, according to the partners. 

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The companies claim that the €20 million grant will be used to finance the design phases, the supply of equipment and the construction work, as well as research, development and innovation work focusing mainly on optimizing technological solutions and the operation of this type of infrastructure.

The production site at North Sea, off the port of Ostend, will comprise three units - production and compression (at medium pressure) at sea, export by composite pipeline, then compression (at high pressure), storage and distribution onshore. 

Given that the developing partners are moving ahead towards construction and commercialization, the latest award by EU recognizes HOPE as a flagship project making a decisive contribution to energy transition in the region. 

By means of a first large-scale demonstration, the project will make it possible to improve the technological solutions for the production of renewable hydrogen offshore and its export onshore, helping to reduce the investment risks for much larger-scale projects in the years to come and paving the way for the production of massive quantities of renewable hydrogen in Europe, the developers opine.