(Glasgow / Scotland) – Energy supplier Scottish Power Plc will receive £9,4 million (€11,2 million) to integrate a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyser into an onshore wind farm for the first time. The location is Whitelee near Glasgow, Scotland. The hydrogen production output is 20 megawatts. It is said to be the largest green hydrogen plant in the UK to date.
The electrolyser will be operated by a technology mix that includes a new solar park with an output of 20 megawatts, a battery storage system (up to 50 megawatts) and the existing wind farm. The hydrogen is used as fuel for heavy-duty transport and for high-temperature industrial processes. The proceeds could be used to operate 550 hydrogen buses, which travel the approximately 80 kilometer route from Glasgow to Edinburgh and back every day.
“Green Hydrogen for Scotland”
Funding is provided by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) under the Storage at Scale program. The project by the “Green Hydrogen for Scotland” consortium, which, in addition to Scottish Power, also includes the electrolyser manufacturer ITM Power Plc and the industrial gases supplier BOC Ltd. – a Linde Group company since 2006 – is currently going through the planning process. In April Scottish Power had the planning application submitted. Completion of the facilities is scheduled for 2023.
Scottish Power only set up its green hydrogen division at the beginning of the year. At that time the new leader, Barry Carruthers, has already called for public funding “to enable investments that are necessary to stimulate competition in the field of green hydrogen”.
By 2018, the utility had divested itself of its entire coal portfolio for electricity and heat generation in order to generate electricity entirely from renewable energy. Scottish Power's parent company is the Spanish energy company Iberdrola.
Photos
Whitelee is the UK's largest onshore wind farm. It is located on Eaglesham Moor, 20 minutes south of central Glasgow. The wind farm has 215 turbines with an output of 539 megawatts. © Thomas Nugent (cc-by-sa/2.0; geograph.org.uk/p/6051699)
