This chapter examines the legal framework pertaining to the offshore development of green hydrogen and seeks to identify legal barriers to its deployment. Offshore production of green hydrogen facilitates the integration of power-to-hydrogen applications with offshore wind energy generation. By converting surplus electricity generated by offshore wind farms into hydrogen and transporting it to shore via pipelines, additional investment in expensive offshore grid infrastructure and the already congested onshore electricity grid can be reduced. Furthermore, by using existing offshore hydrocarbon infrastructure to produce and transport hydrogen, there is an opportunity to extend the (economic) lifetime of that infrastructure. This synergy with existing offshore hydrocarbon infrastructure is particularly attractive for two reasons. First, it avoids the need for further infrastructure investment, as the offshore hydrocarbon infrastructure is already in place and integrated with the onshore gas infrastructure. Secondly, it helps hydrocarbon companies to capitalise on past investments, providing an incentive to move towards a carbon-neutral business model.

The chapter presents a case study on Denmark and the Netherlands. This is because they are actively pursuing large-scale development of offshore wind energy and green hydrogen production as promising strategies to meet their climate change targets. Given that these countries are embedded in a wider international and European Union (EU) context, the focus is on international, EU and national legislation applicable to offshore energy activities in general and offshore hydrogen activities in particular. First, it examines the relevant provisions of the international law of the sea (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), which establishes the competence of coastal states to regulate offshore energy activities and their rights and obligations at sea. Secondly, it explores the applicable EU legislation and compares the existing legislation (or lack thereof) in Denmark and the Netherlands that applies to the offshore development of green hydrogen production. A robust and enabling legal framework is needed to facilitate the development of offshore hydrogen infrastructure. Without such a framework, investments will not be made and new developments, such as offshore electrolysers, will not be deployed. By assessing the applicability of existing EU and national legislation to the offshore development of hydrogen infrastructure, legal barriers can be identified. One such barrier is the lack of legislation specifically addressing the permitting procedure for offshore hydrogen production.