Green Hydrogen Production - £3.1 Million For Action To Support Energy Transition
15th August 2024
Scotland's whisky distillers are to benefit from government funding towards the development of a green hydrogen hub in Moray.
Scottish Government funding of £3.1 million will support the construction of a new regional hub in Speyside, bringing approximately 100 permanent high skilled, high value jobs to the area.
The phased development by Storegga is expected to produce around 200MW of green hydrogen by 2032 -- the equivalent to the production of enough hydrogen to heat over 8,000 homes.
Once fully operational the new hub is expected to save around 190,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. This is the equivalent of a 35% drop in the Scottish whisky sector's 2018 baseline emissions or the same as taking around 135,000 cars from roads in Scotland.
Green hydrogen is made by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable energy, and can be used for fuel for transportation, commercial and industrial heat or stored to meet future demand.
The green hydrogen produced in Speyside will provide fuel and energy for over 40 industrial sites across the region including whisky distillers and distiller hauliers - supporting the decarbonation of the sector.
The Scottish Government's funding will be matched by Storegga - with investment totalling £6.2 million. It complements a total of almost £7 million from the Scottish Government's Hydrogen Innovation Scheme, which has supported 31 projects across the country since 2022.
Acting Energy Secretary Gillian Martin said: "This Scottish Government funding will support the construction of a new hub in Speyside, creating job opportunities for a hundred people in the local area.
"The hub will also support decarbonisation of Scotland's iconic whisky industry, which currently relies on energy intensive production techniques - by creating clean energy and heat used for distilling and fuel for transportation.
"There is significant potential for the development of green hydrogen production in Scotland, due to our capability to generate so much renewable energy from offshore wind - crucial to the process of making green hydrogen.
"And as we continue with our transition to net zero, green hydrogen will play an increasingly important role within industry as organisations further decarbonise their operations and support Scotland’s transition to net zero."
Tim Stedman, Storegga CEO said: "Storegga is thrilled to be leading the development of the green hydrogen hub in Speyside, a project that marks a crucial step in Scotland’s energy transition.
"We are deeply grateful to the Scottish Government for their support which is instrumental in bringing this vision to life. This initiative highlights the importance of government and industry working together to achieve our shared net-zero goals.
“By harnessing Scotland’s rich renewable energy resources, we can significantly reduce carbon emissions and support the decarbonisation of Scotland's iconic whisky industry. We are also committed to engaging with the local community through ongoing public consultations, ensuring that this project benefits both the region and its residents. Collaboration like this is essential to driving sustainable industrial practices and creating high-quality jobs that will benefit the region for years to come."
In March 2024
Projects awarded funding to help develop and demonstrate renewable hydrogen technologies.
The £10 million Hydrogen Innovation Scheme offers funding to projects to help develop and demonstrate renewable hydrogen technologies.
It is part of the Emerging Energy Technologies Fund, and is being delivered over 4 years from 2022 to 2026.
The scheme will help develop the technology needed to support our hydrogen production targets, as set out in our hydrogen action plan.
The scheme, which closed to applications in August 2022, is split into two streams:
Stream 1 provides funding for feasibility studies or technical demonstration of hydrogen production, distritubion or storage solutions
Stream 2 provides support for the development of test and demonstration facilties and equipment
Hydrogen Innovation Scheme: funding awarded
A total of 31 projects have been awarded a share of £7 million, all now operational.
Stream 1 projects
Project: H2GEN
Lead organisation: Cygnas Solutions
Description: Feasibility study of H2GEN hydrogen storage system.
Funding awarded: £147,610
Project: HyBrine
Lead organisation: sHYp BV Ltd
Description: Feasibility study for project HyBrine which aims to achieve low cost, efficient, and sustainable H2 production by using seawater as the water source and through technology advancements that avoid the need for desalination systems and enable more durable and reliable electrolysis.
Funding awarded: £150,000
Project: HyFloat
Lead organisation: Wood Group
Description: Feasibility study for HyFloat, a floating wind platform that houses renewable hydrogen production equipment and stores the hydrogen within the buoyant structure.
Funding awarded: £150,000
Project: Combining grid constrained wind and solar with quarry water supply for green hydrogen production
Lead organisation: Chartmount Holdings Ltd
Description: Study which will examine the feasibility of utilising multiple renewable electricity sources to power an electrolyser that would use water in a co-located quarry to produce green hydrogen.
Funding awarded: £63,165
Project: Green Hydrogen and Oxygen Supply from Tidal energy(GHOST)
Lead organisation: Nova Innovation Ltd
Description: Study examining the feasibility of using tidal energy around the Shetland Island of Yell for the production of hydrogen and oxygen for local use, including as rocket fuel for the Saxavord Space Centre.
Funding awarded: £131,017
Project: Mobile hydrogen unit to utilise grid curtailed generation
Lead organisation: Temporis Capital Ltd
Description: Study that will investigate the feasibility of utilising a portable green hydrogen electrolyser to produce hydrogen using power from renewable generators in Scotland during grid curtailment
Funding awarded: £110,420
Project: HyDesal
Lead organisation: Waterwhelm Ltd
Description: Study to explore routes to improve the membrane design of Waterwhelm’s desalination technology and the feasibility of implementing this improved technology with commercially-available renewable hydrogen production units using waste heat
Funding awarded: £149,759
Project: GHigha: Green Hydrogen for the Isle of Gigha
Lead organisation: BPP Technical Services Ltd
Description: Concept design for a Green Hydrogen Production System with the Isle of Gigha as the case study.
Funding awarded: £150,000
Project: Next-generation optical solution for the detection of hydrogen contaminants
Lead organisation: Chromacity Ltd
Description: Study to develop improved process controls for the hydrogen supply chain through the detection of contaminants/pollution.
Funding awarded: £150,000
Project: Hybrid Hydrogen Storage and Distribution
Lead organisation: Glacier Energy Services Holdings Ltd
Description: Feasibility study into the optimum design of low-cost, lightweight hydrogen storage and distribution vessels.
Funding awarded: £149,995
Project: Glasgow Airport Hydrogen Innovation Hub
Lead organisation: Glasgow Airport Ltd
Description: Study to test the feasibility of a hydrogen production, storage and distribution hub at Glasgow Airport
Funding awarded: £150,000
Project: Feasibility of Explainable AI to support decision making as applied to hydrogen generation
Lead organisation: Intelligent Plant Ltd
Description: Study to develop a decision support system and use explainable artificial intelligence to support logistics solutions for hydrogen production
Funding awarded: £148,879
Project: Tank Testing of Hydrogen Offshore Transfer System (TestHOTS)
Lead organisation: Jebb Smith Ltd
Description: Feasibility study to refine the design and functionality of a land-sea interface for hydrogen transport and distribution
Funding awarded: £149,289
Project: Optimisation of Proton Conducting Ceramic Tubular Cells for Efficient Hydrogen Production
Lead organisation: ZEM Fuel Systems Limited
Description: Feasibility study to explore the creation of efficient hydrogen production from steam to hydrogen to provide a low cost, efficient, durable, and zero carbon production mechanism
Funding awarded: £148,028
Project: Advanced Decoupled Electrolysis Demonstrator Project
Lead organisation: Clyde Hydrogen Systems Ltd
Description: Project to demonstrate novel technology for the innovative low-cost, efficient and sustainable production of renewable hydrogen
Funding awarded: £515,000
Project: Discontinuum Modelling for a Lined Rock Hydrogen Storage Shaft
Lead organisation: Gravitricity Ltd
Description: Study to examine the feasibility of storing hydrogen in a purpose sunk shaft within a rock shaft with mixed geology.
Funding awarded: £149,464
Project: Orkney sea water electrolysis project
Lead organisation: Locogen Ltd
Description: Study to investigate the feasibility of using seawater as the feedwater to an electrolyser system.
Funding awarded: £112,838
Project: H2Shore - Hydrogen coastal storage and distribution
Lead organisation: Port of Aberdeen
Description: Study to investigate the feasibility of establishing underwater hydrogen storage at the South Harbour at Port of Aberdeen.
Funding awarded: £150,000
Project: StorageUpscale
Lead organisation: Scottish Gas Network
Description: Feasibility study into how Scotland’s geology can integrate with innovative engineered storage solutions to provide capacity for intermediate scale (>1TWh) storage to bridge the existing hydrogen storage capacity gap.
Funding awarded: £149,000
Project: Large Scale Floating Hydrogen Production Offshore Scotland
Lead organisation: Subsea7
Description: A concept study programme that will focus on offshore production of green hydrogen on a Floating Hydrogen Production Unit (FHPU) located close to offshore windfarms.
Funding awarded: £150,000
Project: Green Hydrogen Integration at Sullom Voe
Lead organisation: EnQuest Heather Ltd
Description: A study to assess the feasibility of producing hydrogen from treated water from the Sullom Voe terminal water treatment plant (site rainwater runoff and process waste water) via electrolysis, then storage/distribution via existing obsolete O&G infrastructure.
Funding awarded: £149,633
Project: DESOW (Decoupled Electrolyser, Storage and Offshore Wind)
Lead organisation: Invinity Energy (UK) Ltd
Description: Feasibility study to establish the applicability of using offshore wind to power a novel decoupled electrolyser to support hydrogen production, energy storage, and on demand electricity generation via vanadium redox flow batteries
Funding awarded: £131,243
Project: River Clyde for Hydrogen Production and Reoxygenation Project
Lead organisation: Marubeni Europower Limited
Description: Study to establish a process of river water treatment for supplying to electrolysers, which should overcome issues of water availability (and cost) to produce renewable hydrogen.
Funding awarded: £150,000
Project: Off-grid Green Hydrogen Production Demonstration
Lead organisation: ORE Catapult Development Services Limited
Description: Study to assess the feasibility of an off-grid green hydrogen production demonstration project
Funding awarded: £147,529
Project: HySKUA
Lead organisation: EMEC
Description: A study that will focus on offshore production of green hydrogen on a floating hydrogen production hub (HySKUA) co-located with Scottish offshore windfarms.
Funding awarded: £150,000
Project: H2 Auxinvest
Lead organisation: Green Cat Hydrogen Ltd
Description: Development of an open-source software tool that will improve the uptake of low TRL equipment through plugging a gap in available information about existing and upcoming low TRL components produced using a domestic supply chain.
Funding awarded: £50,098
Project: Remote Rural Hydrogen Production
Lead organisation: SRUC
Description: Study that aims to support an innovative solution to the decarbonisation of agricultural and forestry operations.
Funding awarded: £129,972
Stream 2 projects
Project: Accessible Green Hydrogen Test and Demonstration Facility for Scotland
Lead organisation: University of Glasgow
Description: Creation of demonstration and testing facilities for low-to-mid and mid-to-late Technology Readiness Level (TRL) hydrogen technologies, enabling such technologies to be developed and commercialised in Scotland.
Funding awarded: £280,550
Project: Creed Hydrogen Skills and Innovation Centre
Lead organisation: Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar
Description: Establishment of a green hydrogen production learning, test and research hub at Creed Park, Stornoway which aims to accelerate the development of a hydrogen ecosystem in the Outer Hebrides.
Funding awarded: £1,129,000
Project: Construction Hydrogen Hub
Lead organisation: Balfour Beatty
Description: Conversion of an existing Operation and Maintenance depot into a Construction Hydrogen Hub to demonstrate the use of and catalyse demand for hydrogen in the construction industry.
Funding awarded: £243,000
Project: Comprehensive one stop hydrogen storage testing (Hy-One)
Lead organisation: National Subsea Centre, Robert Gordon University (RGU)
Description: Hy-One will provide a testing facility to support the development, demonstration, and implementation of small- to large-scale compressed hydrogen storage vessels and their accessories.
Funding awarded: £1,198,000
Hydrogen Innovation Scheme objectives
The objectives of the scheme are to:
support innovation in hydrogen production, storage and distribution technology to reduce the cost of hydrogen produced in Scotland
enable Scottish companies not currently active in the hydrogen sector to transition or diversify their operations to help anchor the hydrogen supply chain in Scotland
encourage collaboration between the private sector and academia
attract additional investment in Scottish hydrogen innovation activity
support Scottish companies to partner internationally to drive innovation and build and export Scottish capability/expertise
support the development and use of Scotland’s world-class test and demonstration facilities
