Scottish project to use surplus wind for 3GW hydrogen

UK-based energy storage company Statera plans to develop a 3GW grid-connected electrolysis project near Aberdeen to turn surplus offshore wind power in Scotland into hydrogen, the company said today.

Statera aims to complete front-end engineering studies for the 500MW first stage by 2024, reach a final investment decision in 2025, and start first production in 2028. It then hopes to expand sixfold to 3GW capacity around 2030, it said. The study for the first phase will be partly funded by the UK's £240mn ($297.1mn) Net Zero Hydrogen Fund. Statera was one of 15 projects awarded a share of the £37.9mn which the government awarded today.

In the near term Statera's thermal power plant could act as an anchor offtaker, as the company hopes to switch it from natural gas to hydrogen. The hydrogen could also be blended into the natural gas grid if the government decides in favour of the idea when it makes its decision later this year.

Eventually the hydrogen could be sent via repurposed gas transmission pipelines to the UK's most carbon-intense industrial regions, Statera said. The plant could account for 30pc of the UK's target for 10GW by 2030 if Statera's plan is realised in full, but scaling up to 3GW relies on the UK developing this transmission infrastructure, it said. UK TSO National Gas Grid aims to repurpose around 25pc of the country's gas transition pipelines to carry hydrogen by the early 2030s.

Installing flexible electrolyser capacity would enable Scotland to continue expanding its wind generation assets and reduces the need for costly transmission grid reinforcements, Statera said.

The company plans to choose "UK-made technology where possible" for its project, the UK all party parliamentary group on hydrogen's chair Alexander Stafford MP said.

Statera is carving out a role in energy storage infrastructure such as batteries, pumped hydro, and renewable hydrogen which will be increasingly needed as the UK switches to an electricity system based on intermittent renewables. Aside from the 3GW Aberdeen project the company is developing a further 3.2GW of hydrogen production elsewhere in the UK, it said.

By Aidan Lea