Innovative design and operation for rare earth material reduction and optimized lifetime for next generation offshore wind-based hydrogen production (INSPIRE) is funded by "Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership", a Horizon Europe co-funded partnership, in collaboration with the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Norwegian Research Council, and The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) from Belgium.

INSPIRE integrates floating wind farms together with hydrogen production to optimize the design, to reduce rare earth element (REE) usage, and to enhance the system lifetime.

INSPIRE core ambition

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

Objectives

1. Optimized green hydrogen system design methodology with minimum REEs
2. AI-based wind-hydrogen production optimization for optimized lifetime
3. Reference design of an optimized, open access, green hydrogen system
4. Establish a pathway towards implementation in policy and industrial standards

Two Case studies with real world data aiming for TRL 4 -5

1. INSPIRE 675 MW Green Hydrogen Farm
2. An on-grid hydrogen production system from a virtual wind farm calibrated on the Belgian offshore wind cluster

The INSPIRE novelties and position

• up to 100% reduction of REEs in hydrogen production
• min 30% reduction of REEs in floating offshore wind
• new approach to REE reduction and optimized lifetime methodology and algorithm
• open access integrated design as EU research infrastructure
• risk reduction of Europe’s reliance on REEs and on the non-EU supply chain
• integrated transnational road maps for REE reduction and industrialization of innovations in wind-hydrogen for stakeholders and EU policy makers

INSPIRE impact

• Reduced REE and cost of renewable energy and renewable fuel and their value chains
• Enhanced sustainability of wind-hydrogen renewable energy and renewable fuels value chains (social, economic, environment)
• More effective market uptake of renewable energy and fuel technologies