The Aberdeen City Council has formed a joint venture partnership with energy giant bp (British Petroleum) to establish a scalable green hydrogen production, storage and distribution facility in the city.
This facility will be powered by renewable energy and developed in three phases to meet the growing demand.
In the first phase, a green hydrogen production and transport refuelling facility will be set up. This facility will be powered by a solar farm. It is targeting first production from 2024 and will deliver more than 800kg of green hydrogen daily.
The hydrogen delivered will be enough to fuel 25 buses or other vehicles.
“Today is a milestone in delivery of our hydrogen programme. We are now seeing the benefits of having our 2015 Hydrogen Plan in place that provided a clear statement on the scale of our ambition to deploy hydrogen power in Aberdeen,” City Council Leader Councillor Jenny Laing said. “we were ahead of the game then, and it is impressive that seven years on, we have a developing hydrogen economy with 85 hydrogen-powered vehicles deployed across the city, refuelling infrastructure, and a joint venture company with bp to deliver the hydrogen production and distribution hub. “
In the subsequent phases, production may be scaled by investing further to deliver large volumes of green hydrogen for marine, freight and rail and hydrogen for heat and export.
The firms have committed £3 million to the joint venture, bp Aberdeen Hydrogen Energy Limited, for the initial design work. The final investment decision for the first phase is expected to take place in early 2023.
Louise Kingham CBE, bp’s UK head of country and senior vice president for Europe, said, “bp is investing across all the energy transition growth areas in the UK. In fact, we have committed to spend £2 in the UK for every £1 generated here out to the middle of this decade.
bp’s strategy to achieve net-zero emissions involves partnering with cities and corporates. By 2030, the firm intends to partner with 10 to 15 cities worldwide and provide innovative, integrated, and decarbonized energy solutions to help them achieve their net-zero goals. bp also intends to capture 10% of the low carbon hydrogen market by 2030 in key geographies.
