3rd Nov 2022
- ScottishPower and Storegga announce plans to build a series of green hydrogen projects in the Highlands
- The initial project phases will be focused in the Cromarty Firth region (north of Inverness) and will provide green industrial heat across the region for a range of customers including distilleries and transportation sectors
- The projects are expected to deliver hundreds of MW of green hydrogen production capacity before end of the decade, with plans for the first project to be operating by 2024
ScottishPower and Storegga have formed a partnership to develop, build and operate green hydrogen production plants across Scotland – with the potential to transform industry and transportation in the Highland region.
The first project to be progressed will be the Cromarty Hydrogen Project, located just north of Inverness. The project is designed to deliver up to 20 tonnes of green hydrogen per day from 2024 and has, subject to customer demand, the potential to scale to 300MW in a series of modular expansion phases. It will displace existing fossil fuel sources and enable the supply of green hydrogen into the heating processes of distilleries, with additional potential application to other local manufacturing, food production, and industrial heating applications.
The Cromarty Hydrogen Project follows a successful feasibility study by ScottishPower and Storegga, undertaken in collaboration with major distillers Diageo, Glenmorangie, and Whyte & Mackay – all of which have operations in the Cromarty region. As part of meeting ambitious carbon reduction targets set by one of Scotland’s most valuable exporting sectors, the use of green hydrogen will decarbonise production processes, helping make Scotland’s national drink greener.
Discussions on similar projects for other customers and industries are also underway.
Being ‘home-made’, green hydrogen has clear benefits in terms of security of energy supply. As well as accelerating the potential for cleaner industrial heating processes, green hydrogen is poised to transform the heavy transport sector across the country, with clean fuel potentially powering vehicles such as refuse collection trucks, buses, and HGVs. Green hydrogen is also a suitable alternative clean fuel for rail, air and shipping.
Barry Carruthers, Hydrogen Director at ScottishPower said: “This is a really exciting milestone in our ambitions to support the growth of green hydrogen production across the country and the decarbonisation of heavy industry. We can now get to work on turning plans on paper into tangible and deliverable projects that will transform industry in the Highlands – making a long and lasting difference for people, businesses and communities.
“We’re excited to be working with Storegga to help create a clean energy future for this stunning and vital economic region of Scotland.”
Andrew Brown, Head of Hydrogen at Storegga said: “The Cromarty Green Hydrogen Project is expected to be the UK’s largest green hydrogen facility when it commences operations in 2024, and is expected to rapidly expand thereafter.
“Storegga has been working with the distilling sector on the energy transition since 2014. In 2019, the Scotch Whisky Association’s Pathway to Net Zero report identified that hydrogen would play a key role in enabling Net Zero for the distilling sector. Phase 1 of the Cromarty Hydrogen Project is expected to be the first of many as we develop a broader green hydrogen manufacturing capacity in Scotland this decade. Storegga is proud to be working with ScottishPower and the distillers on this groundbreaking project.”
Notes to editors:
About ScottishPower
ScottishPower is a major energy company with renewable generation, retail supply and network interests; a leading developer of wind power in the UK, and part of the Iberdrola Group, the world’s leading renewables developer. ScottishPower generates 100% green electricity and our parent company, Iberdrola, is a global leader in tackling climate change, with a commitment to reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. At the end of 2020, we launched our Green Hydrogen Business Division and are working with parties in ‘hard-to-decarbonise’ sectors such as heavy transport and heavy industry to help them take forward opportunities to decarbonise through the use of zero-carbon, green hydrogen produced using renewable generation.
www.scottishpower.co.uk/green-hydrogen
About Storegga
Storegga Limited is an independent, UK-based decarbonisation development business. It develops early stage carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, and other subsurface renewable projects in the UK and internationally to contribute to achieving net zero targets. The company employs approximately 80 people in the UK, US and Singapore, with its head office in London.
Storegga is a private company backed by GIC, Mitsui & Co., Ltd., M&G Investments and Macquarie Group.
Storegga is the lead developer of the Acorn Carbon Capture and Storage and Hydrogen project in Aberdeen, Scotland. The Acorn Project will provide critical backbone infrastructure for the Scottish Cluster. The Scottish Cluster unites communities, industries and businesses to deliver CCS, hydrogen and other low carbon technologies, supporting Scotland, the UK and Europe to meet net zero goals. Acorn has received match funding from the UK and Scottish Governments and has benefited from two rounds of Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding from the European Commission.
Storegga:(https://www.storegga.earth/)
For further information please contact:
ScottishPower
Denise Robertson at ScottishPower
drobertson@scottishpower.com / +44 7585 961708
Storegga
Jennifer Walmsley, Fern Duncan, Leah Dudley at Dentons Global Advisors
Storegga@dentonsglobaladvisors.com / +44 20 7664 5086
