ScottishPower Plans U.K.'s Largest Green Hydrogen Facility

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Plans are afoot to build the U.K.'s largest green hydrogen (H2) facility next to the country's largest onshore windfarm, Whitelee, in Scotland.

ScottishPower has submitted a planning application to build a 20 megawatt (MW) electrolyser close to its 539-MW Whitelee windfarm on Eaglesham Moor, near Glasgow. It will be powered by surplus renewable energy from the windfarm and will be backed up by the construction of a combined solar, up to 40-MW, and battery energy storage scheme, up to 50-MW, to keep it up and running. Industrial Info is tracking all of the projects, which have a combined investment value of more than $70 million. The green hydrogen facility will be the first to be built as part of the Green Hydrogen for Scotland partnership of ScottishPower, BOC, and ITM Power. The project will be engineered and operated by BOC with ITM Power supplying the electrolyser. The project aims to supply hydrogen to the commercial market before 2023. It will be capable of producing 8-10 tonnes of green hydrogen per day, roughly equivalent to fuelling more than 550 buses capable of travelling more than 150 kilometres daily.

"With all eyes set to be on Glasgow later this year as the city hosts the UN's 26th climate change conference, COP26, it's fantastic to be making this next important step towards delivering green hydrogen for Glasgow," said Barry Carruthers, ScottishPower's Hydrogen Director. "Green hydrogen has a vital role to play in Scotland and the wider UK's journey to Net Zero emissions providing a sustainable energy source that can provide clean, renewable energy for industries, heavy transport and companies for decades to come."

Mark Griffin, hydrogen market development manager for Clean Fuels at BOC, said: "The scale of this project demonstrates the growing demand for clean hydrogen and as a member of the Green Hydrogen for Scotland partnership, we're delighted to bring our hydrogen mobility and refueling project expertise to help deliver a ground-breaking facility in Glasgow."

Last week Industrial Info reported that the world's largest developer of offshore windfarms, Ørsted (Gentofte, Denmark) has set out plans to build a 1-gigawatt (GW) renewable hydrogen (H2) plant that will be linked to industrial demand in the Netherlands and Belgium. The ambitious project, SeaH2Land, will see the 1-GW electrolyser directly linked to a new 2-GW offshore windfarm to be located in the southern part of the Dutch North Sea. For additional information, see April 12, 2021, article - Orsted Plans Giant Green Hydrogen Plant for Netherlands, Belgium.

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