Ireland's First Green Hydrogen Project Revealed

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Plans for Ireland's first green hydrogen facility have been announced for the Cork Harbour area by new energy company EI-H2 (Cork, Ireland).

A planned investment of 120 million euro (U.S.$147 million) has been pledged to build a 50-megawatt (MW) electrolysis plant in Aghada, Cork, that will be capable of supplying more than 20 tonnes of hydrogen per day to the commercial market. It will use available renewable energy to power the plant. The proposed site in the lower harbour area was chosen because of its proximity to a nexus of energy generation facilities including a power plant, heavy industrial plant and an oil refinery. Hydrogen will be added to the existing gas supply system to allow local businesses to reduce their carbon footprint.

Ireland's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, has welcomed the development and said: "Ireland faces a challenge to decarbonise over the next decade, and a plan like that being put forward by EI-H2 would go some way towards helping us achieve what might now seem like impossible targets. Every business in Ireland should be looking at ways to decarbonise, starting with the largest, and working our way through our entire economy. The production of green hydrogen using surplus wind energy is just one way that we can help put Ireland on a solid environmental footing, and show global leadership in energy projects. I would like to wish Pearse Flynn and the team at EI-H2 every success as they develop this, and other projects, in this space in the years to come."

EI-H2 founder, Pearse Flynn, added: "The production of hydrogen from excess wind capacity will play a significant role in Ireland's decarbonisation, given that Ireland could be generating 8 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. There inevitably will be 'curtailed' energy that will go to waste unless we find ways of using it. EI-H2 is planning the production of safe and environmentally sound green hydrogen that will allow industry to decarbonise. This initiative will create and sustain local jobs, and go a long way towards helping Ireland meet its international obligations on climate change."

Pre-planning discussions with Cork County Council, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications and other interested parties are taking place now with a formal lodging for planning permission expected later this year. Commissioning of the plant is expected in 2023.

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