OSLO, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Norway's Equinor (EQNR.OL) and British SSE Renewables (SSE.L) are looking into the option of expanding their Dogger Bank Wind Farm offshore project in Britain by 1.32 gigawatt (GW), the two companies said on Monday.
The firms said they were considering either supplying power from the fourth phase to the grid, or using it as a dedicated source for hydrogen production.
"The second option being considered by the developers is the use of electricity produced by offshore wind to generate green hydrogen at a dedicated electrolysis facility in the Humber region," they said in a statement.
The first three stages of Dogger Bank Wind Farm, known as A, B and C and located more than 130 kilometres off the Yorkshire coast, are currently under development, and will have a total capacity of 3.6 GW, enough to power 6 million British homes.
Hydrogen can be produced by splitting water molecules using electricity, or electrolysis. This method doesn't result in carbon dioxide emissions as opposed to hydrogen production from natural gas, but generally is more expensive.
Equinor and SSE Renewables each own 50% of the proposed Dogger Bank D development, while Equinor and SSE have 40% stakes each in the first three stages, with Eni's (ENI.MI) Norwegian offshore wind venture Vaargroenn holding the remaining 20% stake.
