Making GH2 at sea: UK startup plans fleet of sail ships with onboard electrolyzers

British startup DRIFT Energy announced it had raised funds to build a hi-tech sailing vessel what would harness ocean winds to make green hydrogen at sea.

The company said it had closed its seed funding round by raising £4.65 million from investors led by Octopus Energy and supported by Blue Action Accelerator. The funds will allow the company to scale up its ambition and vessel production next year, it said in a release.

"This new funding is a vital step in developing and building the first green hydrogen producing DRIFT ship," the company said, adding that it plans to help the global transition to clean energy "by deploying a fleet of high-performance sailing vessels that harness deep ocean wind to produce green hydrogen at sea and deliver it globally".

DRIFT Energy had unveiled its yacht design at Monaco last year, by premiering the MVY (short for Most Valuable Yacht) concept. The 58-meter vessel is capable of generating, storing and delivering energy by itself: DRIFT Energy said then it "generates electricity using turbines that capture the kinetic energy of the sailing catamaran and stores this onboard as green hydrogen. When its tanks are nearly full the vessel proceeds to a designated port or location to offload. In the Superyacht context this can either be direct to the mothership or to bunker at her current port location. A single vessel is capable of generating over 140 tonnes of green hydrogen a year - a volume that would abate over 1,500 tonnes of CO2-equivalent." 

In essense, what DRIFT Energy is doing is taking the electrolyzer out to sea. Instead of setting up wind farms offshore --- where the sea breeze is strongest --- and piping the energy to the mainland to power an electrolyzer, DRIFT Energy is installing the technology on to a ship and routing it to where the winds are.  

Ben Medland, Founder and CEO of DRIFT Energy, said: "The vast majority of the world's renewable energy is over the oceans, so what better way to harvest it than using sailing vessels?"

Mat Munro, Investor at Octopus Ventures, said in the release: "We're incredibly excited about DRIFT and the team's potential to lead the way in developing a truly innovative source of renewable energy... We can't wait for the day its first vessel sets out on its maiden voyage."

George Northcott, Co-Founder of Blue Action Accelerator added: "Our mission is to help scale groundbreaking technologies that preserve marine environments and support coastal-dependent communities. DRIFT is the ultimate example of that - creating a new class of mobile renewable energy from the world's seas and delivering it to where it is needed - from island nation communities to power hungry ports."

DRIFT Energy was also recently awarded funding from Innovate UK, the UK's innovation agency, looking to drive investment into British companies working on cutting-edge technology. DRIFT Energy said the grant would catalyze its research and development program and accelerate design of its first vessel.