Innovative solutions need to be developed for harvesting wind energy far offshore. They necessarily involve on-board energy storage because grid-connection would be prohibitively expensive. Hydrogen is one of the most promising solutions. However, it is well-known that it is challenging to store and transport hydrogen which may have a critical impact on the delivered hydrogen cost.

In this paper, it is shown that there are vast areas far offshore where wind power is both characterized by high winds and limited seasonal variations. Capturing a fraction of this energy could provide enough energy to cover the forecast global energy demand for 2050. Thus, scenarios are proposed for the exploitation of this resource by fleets of hydrogen-producing wind energy converters sailing autonomously. The scenarios include transportation and distribution of the produced hydrogen.

The delivered hydrogen cost is estimated for the various scenarios in the short term and in the longer term. Cost estimates are derived using technical and economic data available in the literature and assumptions for the cost of electricity available on-board the wind energy converters. In the shorter term, delivered cost estimates are in the range 7.1–9.4 €/kg depending on the scenario and the delivery distance. They are based on the assumption of on-board electricity cost at 0.08€/kWh. In the longer term, assuming an on-board electricity cost at 0.04€.kWh, the cost estimates could reduce to 3.5 to 5.7 €/kg which would make the hydrogen competitive on several hydrogen markets without any support mechanism. For the hydrogen to be competitive on all hydrogen markets including the ones with the highest GHG emissions, a carbon tax of approximately 200 €/kg would be required.

需要开发创新的解决方案，以在海上收集风能。它们必定涉及车载能量存储，因为并网连接的成本过高。氢气是最有前途的解决方案之一。然而，众所周知，氢的存储和运输具有挑战性，这可能对所输送的氢成本产生重大影响。

在本文中，研究表明，在遥远的沿海地区，风能既具有强风又具有有限的季节性变化。捕获一部分这种能量可以提供足够的能量，以满足预测的2050年全球能源需求。因此，提出了一些方案，供自主航行的产氢风能转换器车队开发这种资源。方案包括所产生的氢的运输和分配。

在短期和长期内，针对各种方案估算的已交付氢气成本。成本估算是使用文献中可用的技术和经济数据以及对风能转换器上可用电成本的假设得出的。在短期内，交付成本估计在7.1–9.4欧元/千克的范围内，具体取决于情景和交付距离。它们基于车载电费为0.08€/ kWh的假设。从长远来看，假设车载电力成本为0.04€.kWh，成本估算可能会降低到3.5至5.7€/ kg，这将使氢气在没有任何支持机制的情况下在多个氢气市场上具有竞争力。为了使氢气在所有氢气市场（包括温室气体排放最高的氢气市场）中具有竞争力，