Green Hydrogen for Scotland project targets 40MW of solar as well as 50MW of battery storage

• British energy business ScottishPower is targeting as much as 40MW of solar as part of its Green Hydrogen for Scotland project.

The business has actually submitted a preparation application for as much as 40MW of solar, made up over 62,000 individual solar cells, and as much as 50MW of battery energy storage, which would be found on a site 5km west of Lochgoin Reservoir, just outside of Glasgow in Scotland, as well as adjacent to the existing Whitelee Extension substation.

Strategies to include a 50MW/50MWh fluid cooled lithium-ion battery storage space system to the Whitelee wind farm-- the largest onshore windfarm in the UK at 539MW-- were approved in June 2019 by the Scottish Government. Speaking at Solar Media's Energy Storage space Summit 2021, the firm's head of project monitoring Tony Gannon described the advantages of co-locating storage with the collosal farm.

Together, the solar, wind farm and also storage space will certainly be made use of to power a 20MW electrolyser additionally included in the planning application. This would certainly be the biggest in the UK as well as create 8 tonnes of environment-friendly hydrogen a day.

Barry Carruthers, ScottishPower's Hydrogen supervisor, stated that as eyes turned to Glasgow ahead of the COP26 summertime this year, "it's fantastic to be making this next vital action towards delivering eco-friendly hydrogen for Glasgow.

" Whitelee maintains damaging barriers, initially the UK's biggest onshore windfarm, and also quickly to be house to the UK's largest electrolyser. The site has played an important duty in assisting the UK to decarbonise and we expect supplying another vital kind of zero carbon energy generation at the website to help Glasgow and also Scotland achieve their net zero goals."

Green Hydrogen for Scotland is being created by Scottish Power in collaboration with expert gas company BOC and also electrolyser manufacturer ITM Power, as well as is intending to commercially supply hydrogen prior to 2030.

The UK is increasingly focused on eco-friendly hydrogen, as a means to decarbonise tough markets such as heavy duty transport. In March, funding for nine projects that utilized a mix of hydrogen as well as CCS was revealed as part of the Government's ₤ 171 million Industrial Decarbonisation Fund as an example. This includes the South Wales Industrial Cluster, where Lightsource bp are establishing solar, storage as well as the electrolyser as part of the project.

Whilst still fairly inceptive, there is a great deal of capacity for environment-friendly hydrogen to take over from natural gas all over the world, in particular if projects such as these assistance drive down prices. According to recent research study by market expert BloombergNEF, environment-friendly hydrogen will be less costly than gas by 2050, with costs falling 85% over the following three decades partially because of decreasing expenses of solar innovation.

Green Hydrogen for Scotland-- which was first announced back in September-- is expected to play a vital part in Glasgow reaching its net zero targets, and particularly help it to create a zero exhausts lorry fleet, depending on electric and also hydrogen-powered cars by the end of 2029.

Mark Griffin, Hydrogen Market Growth Supervisor for Clean Fuels at BOC said the scale of the project highlighted the expanding need for clean hydrogen, including that the company was "delighted to bring our hydrogen mobility and refuelling project proficiency to aid deliver a ground-breaking facility in Glasgow."

" Green hydrogen has an important role to play in Scotland as well as the larger UK's journey to Net Zero emissions supplying a sustainable energy source that can offer clean, renewable resource for markets, hefty transportation and firms for decades to find."

ScottishPower is expecting a decision on the preparation application this autumn.