Scottish green hydrogen scheme gears up to fuel ferries, buses and trains

Source: Jillian Ambrose · THE GUARDIAN · | September 16, 2020

Wind and solar farms will produce the gas alongside Scottish Power, ITM Power and BOC

An electrolyser close to Whitelee (pictured), the UK’s largest onshore windfarm, will be used to create the hydrogen gas. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

Scottish Power’s wind and solar farms will soon help produce green hydrogen to run buses, ferries and even trains as part of a pioneering strategic partnership to develop the UK’s nascent hydrogen economy.

The renewable energy company, owned by Spain’s Iberdrola, will work alongside companies that specialise in producing and distributing the zero-carbon gas. Hydrogen is expected to play a major role in helping the UK to meet its climate targets.

Scottish Power will use the clean electricity generated by a major new solar farm planned for a site near Glasgow to run an electrolyser, owned by its project partner ITM Power, which will split water into hydrogen and oxygen molecules.

The third company within the partnership, BOC, specialises in compressing and distributing gases and will help transport the hydrogen gas to councils, factories and transport depots across the country.

“Green hydrogen is something that everyone is talking about,” said Lindsay McQuade, the head of renewables at Scottish Power, “but we wanted to do something about it. This is a pioneering partnership which brings together skills from all the companies involved.”

The hydrogen gas can be used in place of methane-rich North Sea gas to run power plants, heavy machinery and transport vehicles without adding to the greenhouse gas emissions that are accelerating the climate crisis.