Hydrogen is essential to achieve the UK’s Net Zero emissions target because we cannot electrify everything. Key sectors such as heavy transport, industrial heat and some parts of the domestic heat networks will require hydrogen gas for power, according to Stuart McKay, Head of Hydrogen Policy in the Scottish Government.
Mr McKay was speaking at the final event of the HyStorPor project which has been investigating subsurface geological storage of hydrogen. More than 70 delegates gathered for the event at the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute on July 12 and were joined by over 60 participants online.
“I would like hydrogen to play a role in balancing the energy system and providing storage in the short and medium term for the electricity grid as more renewables come online,” Mr McKay said. “I would also like to see it playing a role in decarbonising industrial heat and particularly the distillery sector – that’s the lowest hanging fruit.”
Being able to store large amounts of hydrogen is key to the energy transition and to the move to renewable sources. When demand is low, wind and solar power can be converted into hydrogen and stored, before being drawn down and turned back into energy when demand is high.
He said the Scottish Government, which published a hydrogen action plan in December, supports blue and green hydrogen but that it doesn’t support any new grey hydrogen coming online. Green hydrogen is hydrogen produced with renewable energy; blue hydrogen is hydrogen produced with natural gas with carbon capture and storage; while grey hydrogen is hydrogen produced with natural gas without capturing the greenhouse gas emissions made in the process.
Mr McKay predicted that the pattern of Scotland’s hydrogen production map would remain diverse with both small and large producers.
“There will be small regional hydrogen projects which are green and which are coming forward and multiplying. There are also a handful of very large projects being proposed linked to the installation of offshore wind that are due to come online in the late 2020s,” he said, giving the example of the Repsol Sinopec 2GW Orkney Flotta project, the largest planned to date.
The Scottish Government is supporting the sector with two hydrogen innovation funds. The first, a £10m fund, is backing 32 projects, with a further £90m fund due later this year.
In terms of the hurdles currently faced by developers, these include securing firm offtakers for the hydrogen and also uncertainty over some aspects of the regulatory framework.
“We’re also aware of the pressure these projects will put on local planning authorities to process planning applications,” he said.
As for how university research could support hydrogen deployment, he said the efficiency of hydrogen production could be improved “immensely”.
“A better understanding of how that could progress would be extremely useful for Scotland’s prospects in hydrogen production,” said Mr McKay. “The design of electrolysers to be able to use salt water to produce hydrogen would be a potential gamechanger.”
Two key potential developments for hydrogen in Scotland depend on action from the UK government, he noted.
“A positive decision from the UK government on the blending of hydrogen into the gas grid would be a step change intervention in the hydrogen market in the UK and Scotland,” he said. “And a positive decision on the Scottish CCUS cluster from the UK government would be the catalyst for significant supply chain deployment and for blue hydrogen production in Scotland. That would make such a difference.”
The Acorn CO2 capture and storage project in the Scottish cluster is waiting to hear if it has been selected as part of Phase Two of the UK government’s CCS cluster programme which aims to have four clusters operational by 2030.
