Two Startups Plan to Run an Offshore Ammonia Plant on Wave Power

 

Ocean energy startups SwitcH2 and CorPower Ocean are developing an industrial-scale floating green ammonia production facility that will use wave energy to generate clean power. 

The project, supported by Norway-based BW Offshore and Dutch Oceans Capital, will be based on a newly constructed vessel comparable in size to a VLCC or an FPSO. The facility will house a 300MW electrolysis plant and is expected to produce about 300,000 tonnes of green ammonia per year, reaching full output by 2029. The product will be stowed on board, then transported to shore by shuttle tanker. 

Backed by grant funding from the Dutch Government's GroenvermogenNL TSE (Top Sector Energie) scheme, the project will be located in northern Portugal and will use CorPower Ocean's wave energy technology. The collaboration aims to demonstrate wave energy's capability to provide continuous industrial-scale power, and CorPower says that its system is ready. Its fourth-generation device survived four major Atlantic storms in 2023, setting a new survivability record in 60-foot swells during Storm Domingos off Portugal. 

Green ammonia is a key future fuel for shipping, and hydrogen-based green fuels will be in short supply in the early years of the green transition. An offshore wave-powered ammonia plant would tap an unused energy resource, producing fuel without competing with shoreside industries for market supplies of clean electricity. 

SwitcH2 is backed by BW Offshore, an FPSO market leader. Director and co-founder Saskia Kunst said that in addition to the project off Portugal, the company is exploring other opportunities in West Africa and the Dutch sector of the North Sea.

The partnership comes on the heels of CorPower Ocean's recent successful Series B1 funding round, which secured $34 million - a significant investment in wave energy technology.