Barrier identification and analysis framework to the development of offshore wind-to-hydrogen projects

Offshore wind-to-hydrogen projects enjoy increasingly significant attention due to environmental protection advantages. Nevertheless, the development is hampered by multiple factors and therefore lagging expectations. Some studies have been devoted to this but there still are two deficiencies, namely incomplete barrier identification and biased analysis methods. Hence, this study is devoted to build a comprehensive research framework to effectively address barriers and promote high-quality development of offshore wind-to-hydrogen projects. Firstly, possible barriers are screened covering all stages of project management life cycle, and fourteen barriers are identified. Then a modified fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory method is applied to analyze these barriers, where K-Mediods clustering algorithm is introduced to improve threshold determination. Interactions among barriers are divided into four degrees with key parameters analyzed under four scenarios, and furtherly five critical barriers are extracted. By comparative analysis, the improved method promotes objectiveness of the result and thus is reliable to be applied to relevant analysis work. In conclusion, it is suggested to place emphasis on complicated planning & design, lack of technical specifications, high initial investment, immature business model and lack of high-matching modeling technology, joint efforts by government department, multiple enterprises and scientific institutions with five corresponding management suggestions.