Risk management company DNV is set to launch a joint industry project to develop a certification scheme and industry best practice for the deployment of electrolysers, in a move designed to reduce the risks involved in developing large-scale green hydrogen projects.

The initiative has the backing of 18 companies from the energy and electrolyser manufacturing sectors, including Shell, BP, ITM, Linde Electrolysis and Siemens Energy.

“To grow confidence in the market, electrolysers need further standardisation to reduce uncertainties and risks in industrialising large hydrogen projects,” says Axel Dombrowski, director, innovation & digitalisation for renewables certification at DNV. “We undertook a similar approach for the wind energy industry about 30 years ago which proved to be very successful. Now, we will take the learnings and implement these for the hydrogen technology on an accelerated path.”

“To grow confidence in the market, electrolysers need further standardisation” Dombrowski, DNV

Hydrogen will move from approximately 1.9pc of the mix of energy carriers in 2040 to 5pc in 2050, requiring greater scaling of green projects, according to DNV.

Investment bank Goldman Sachs expects a rapid increase in the average size of electrolysers deployed globally as the industry scales up. “The industry is not only scaling up in terms of the number of projects currently in the pipeline but also in terms of the average size of these projects,” it says in a recent research note. “We estimate the average size of projects increasing from about 2MW in 2020 to 200MW by 2025 and gigawatt-scale by 2030, with a number of gigawatt-scale projects currently in the pipeline.”

DNV’s project will launch on 15 February and remain open to new members until mid-April.

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Author: Stuart Penson