Energy £30m hydrogen network project aims to replace natural gas
A NEW £30 million project has been launched in Scotland to find out if hydrogen can be a clean alternative to natural gas for homes and businesses.
Grangemouth Refinery owner Ineos is leading a project with the business that runs Scotland’s gas networks, SGN, in an attempt to bring hydrogen distribution networks a step closer to reality in the UK. Hydrogen is being championed as the fuel of the future and experts believe it can help tackle the biggest root cause of climate change – air pollution.
The Energy Networks Association (ENA), the industry body representing energy network operators in the UK says that hydrogen could heat homes around the country from next year, with all five of Britain’s gas grid companies preparing to provide the gas.
They say that up to a fifth of the natural gas currently used could be replaced by hydrogen.
The move would reduce carbon emissions by the equivalent of 2.5 million cars a year, the ENA said, all without any changes to people’s cookers, boilers or heating systems. Now a new
Scottish pilot project, funded to the tune of £29.93m and supported by the energy regulator Ofgem together with other gas distribution firms, will use hydrogen supplied by Ineos in an 18-mile section of decommissioned pipeline between the Grangemouth site and the north Edinburgh district of Granton.
Trials are part of efforts to show it is safe and efficient to add the gas to pipelines, and to find out if adjustments may be needed.
Ineos said that it saw the potential for the supply of a lot more hydrogen as the country decarbonises after 2030.
In November, the Scottish Government announced a five-year plan to help build Scotland’s hydrogen economy and deliver an ambition for the technology to provide nearly a sixth of Scotland’s energy needs by 2030.
Backed by more than £100m of funding, the draft Hydrogen Action Plan set out the approach the Scottish Government will take with industry to help make Scotland become a leading nation in the production of reliable, competitive and sustainable hydrogen.
The five-year capital investment programme was to focus on supporting regional renewable hydrogen production hubs and renewable hydrogen projects.
The first tranche of investment – the £10m Hydrogen Innovation Fund – was expected to be launched this year to drive technological progress and cost reduction within the emerging sector.
Separately, the Scottish Government’s Energy Transition Fund was being expanded to up to £75m to deliver £15m of investment in an Aberdeen Hydrogen Hub which will develop on-the-ground infrastructure to support the growth of a hydrogen transport fleet and the deployment of new applications across the north east.
An Ineos spokesman said of the new plan: “If successful, the project will validate the technical, safety and operational ability to transport and store 100 per cent hydrogen in the local transmission system network, offering a route for decarbonisation of the gas network.
“With the project programme concluding in 2025, vital learning and validation of the hydrogen evidence base will be available to support both Scottish and UK Government decarbonisation policy, including UK Government heat policy decisions.”
SGN director Gus Mcintosh added: “Our Local Transmission System is part of the national critical infrastructure that reaches millions of homes and businesses across the UK. So, repurposing it for hydrogen could support a hydrogen system transformation that is least cost and least disruptive to customers.”