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Utility ScottishPower and Storegga, a decarbonization project
developer, announced a partnership to begin operating the first of
several intended green hydrogen production plants in Scotland in
2024, with the nation's iconic whisky industry lined up as early
customers.
Cromarty Hydrogen will be located just north of Inverness, and
it initially will produce 20 metric tons (mt) of green hydrogen per
day, the partners said in a joint statement on 5 May. It will use
renewable energy to drive electrolysis to produce green hydrogen.
"Subject to customer demand, [it has] the potential to scale to 300
MW in a series of modular expansion phases," they added.
Depending on the performance of electrolysis units, 300 MW
equates to about 130 mt/day of green hydrogen, according to
information provided by Storegga to Net-Zero Business
Daily by S&P Global Commodity Insights.
The initial customers will be distilleries, which use electric
power or natural gas heat for mashing, fermentation, and
distillation. Three distillers—Diageo, Glenmorangie, and Whyte
& Mackay—participated in a feasibility study that led to
the investment decision, the partners said. Other potential
customers are food producers and industrial processors that use
high levels of heat.
"This is a really exciting milestone in our ambitions to support
the growth of green hydrogen production across the country and the
decarbonization of heavy industry," said Barry Carruthers, hydrogen
director at ScottishPower, in a media statement.
"Green hydrogen will enable fuel switching from natural gas at
all the distilleries involved, as part of the distillers' ambition
to achieve net-zero by 2030," added Storegga in a statement to
Net-Zero Business Daily.
Storegga has already made a name for itself with carbon capture
and storage (CCS) ventures, such as Acorn CCS with Ineos, Shell,
and others in the UK; and River Bend CCS with Talos
Energy in Louisiana. The company said it views the green hydrogen
venture as a strategic fit. "Storegga is a pure-play
decarbonization business; it's natural for us to be active in all
projects and investments that reduce carbon emissions to the
atmosphere," it said. "Green hydrogen is a natural transition for
Storegga as it builds its low-carbon hydrogen portfolio. You can
expect to see more on this in the coming months."
Sustainable whisky
The distillers signing up for hydrogen from the Cromarty
hydrogen project are helping to deliver on the Scotch Whisky
Association's (SWA) "Sustainability Strategy," which
aims for industry-wide net-zero operations by 2040. That would be
five years ahead of Scotland's national net-zero goal and 10 years
ahead of the global goal set by the Paris Agreement.
SWA's vision also includes elimination of all fossil fuel use
when making whisky, reuse of whisky byproducts for bioenergy or raw
materials for other industries, solely recycled materials in all
packaging, and net-zero emissions from distribution.
Last year, SWA issued a report that stated its members had
reduced direct, operational GHG emissions by 53% from 2008 through 2020.
This was achieved through a combination of a 13% improvement in
energy efficiency and a shift to renewables, which now account for
40% of energy use.
UK backs hydrogen too
For Scotland, the planned green hydrogen projects represent one
of many commercial ventures envisioned in the November 2021 draft
Hydrogen Action Plan that set goals of 5 GW of hydrogen by 2030,
and 25 GW of hydrogen by 2045. At the start of 2022, the Scottish
government committed £100 million ($123 million) from its Emerging
Energy Technologies Fund.
In the early years, industry will utilize CCS to offset
emissions from blue hydrogen derived from natural gas, but because
the country intends to use 100% renewable electricity by
2035, it said all hydrogen by that time will potentially be
produced through electrolysis.
"Our priorities are to get as much renewable hydrogen into the
energy system as quickly as possible while supporting the
establishment of low-carbon hydrogen production at scale in the
2020s, linked to CCS," said Net Zero & Energy Secretary Michael
Matheson when the plan was announced.
Numerous projects are underway across the country in addition to
the Cromarty Project. One recent announcement came from H2 Green
and the Highland Council. The two companies in March said they will
install green hydrogen production and a storage hub in the
Highlands region. Their first customers will be vehicle fleets.
Analysis by Scottish Enterprise, a government agency that
supports business development, indicated that Scotland could
deliver 21-126 TWh of hydrogen per year by 2045. That's
approximately 600,000 mt to 4 million mt a
year of hydrogen. If production at the high end of the range is
achieved, Scotland will become a major hydrogen exporter to Europe,
the report stated.
Production of green hydrogen in Scotland contributes to the
hydrogen goal of the UK overall, which was outlined
in a strategy announced in October 2021. That strategy was updated
in April to increase the UK's targets to 2 GW of hydrogen
production by 2025; 10 GW by 2030; and 20 GW by 2037 (green and
blue hydrogen).
The UK believes that hydrogen can contribute 20%-35% of the
country's energy needs by 2050 (see graph).
The UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
(BEIS) is distributing $2 billion or more through 2025 to support
the industry's growth, including in Scotland. Funds will back
technology development and construction of at least four hydrogen
hubs and pipelines for distribution. The backing also will include
$1 billion for CCS hubs to offset CO2 emissions from blue hydrogen
made from natural gas though the UK is targeting "at least half" of
future production being green hydrogen.
In addition to distributing funds, BEIS is developing the UK Low Carbon Hydrogen
Standard, which was issued in draft form in April. It
identifies how to calculate the GHG emissions through the value
chain and defines "low-carbon hydrogen" as having an emissions
intensity of 20g or less CO2-equivalent per megajoule of produced
hydrogen.