In the context of net zero emission at horizon 2050 in Europe, several countries are today fostering the development of offshore energy hubs that includes the coupling of marine renewables energies offshore production of hydrogen and other activities. This solution presents several benefits and especially facilitate offshore green energy massification, development of synergies between industrial actors and independency and sustainable growth of territories.
In the last five years, the north of Europe countries started looking at this kind of development and started several demonstration projects to accelerate the deployment of the energy hub concept. Looking at this kind of development, it is possible today to imagine the same kind of projects in the Mediterranean Sea and SAIPEM has launched several initiatives to develop and promote such approach. This paper demonstrates how the situation of North Sea can be replicated in the south of Europe and how Saipem is today working on this topic.
In the frame of the Paris Agreement objectives, supported by recovery plan, European countries plan to support decarbonized and local energy production hubs that will accelerate the reindustrialization and growth of some specific regions. Today the North of Europe take the lead on such developments through the establishment of regional development road map and the investment in several demonstration projects aiming at accelerating the deployment of large size projects in a near future. In the south of Europe, the Mediterranean Sea could also benefit from the development of energy hubs. To address this future market Saipem is today developing several technologies and initiatives. This paper will present the today situation of Energy hubs development in North of Europe and especially the potential benefits and the development road map that those countries are following. In a second part the situation of Mediterranean Sea will be presented, and comparison will be made with North of Europe to show how energy hub can be developed in this area. Finally, the Saipem competences, products and initiatives to support those development will be presented.
