Fuel from water? Hyundai is building a wind farm to extract hydrogen from the sea
Hans · May 19, 2021 12:30 PM
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Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., (HHI) the world’s biggest ship building company, has announced that it will be partnering with nine other companies including the Korea National Oil Corporation to build an offshore wind farm to generate green hydrogen.
To be built at the East Sea, the project will see the construction of a 100 MegaWatt floating wind farm and a 1.2 GigaWatt hydrogen generation plant. Construction is expected to complete by 2025.
Offshore wind farm in Jeju. Image: Jeju Tourism Organization
The plant will generate hydrogen from sea water, using electricity generated by the wind farm.
HHI adds that it will establish a new business unit to handle the production of hydrogen and the use of it on land and sea by 2030.
The Korean government has a direct interest in ramping up its ‘hydrogen economy,’ as it does not see battery electric vehicle (BEV) technology alone to be sufficient to meet its transportation needs.
BEVs place heavy load on power grids. For natural resource-strapped Korea, whose power grid already don’t have a lot of excess capacity, a large scale transition towards BEVs is not realistic and hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicles (FCEV) offer an attractive alternative.
Export of Hyundai Xcient FCEV, from a port built by Hyundai, with Hyundai ships
FCEV technology is also better suited for heavy duty, long haul trucks as well as cargo ships – both industries are of strategic importance to Korea.
HHI’s affiliate company the Hyundai Motor Group currently has two FCEV models in its line-up – the Hyundai Nexo SUV and the Hyundai Xcient long haul truck. The latter is the world’s first fuel cell heavy duty truck.
FCEVs don't need long recharge times, and can be refueled in minutes, just like a regular car
Under Korea’s ‘Hydrogen Economy’ plan, the country aims to put aims to put 6.2 million hydrogen-fueled cars on the road by 2040, and build up to 1,200 hydrogen stations across the country.
Over 15 years of experience in automotive, from product planning, to market research, to print and digital media. Garages a 6-cylinder manual RWD but buses to work.
