Whitelee hydrogen project wins £9.4M BEIS funding

The Green Hydrogen for Scotland Consortium has won £9.4 million funding from the BEIS’s Energy Innovation Portfolio competition to develop a hydrogen production and storage facility.
The facility will be sited at Whitelee wind farm, owned by ScottishPower, a member of the Green Hydrogen for Scotland Consortium. The other partners are BOC and ITM Power.
The funding is for a 10MW electrolyser and associated four tonnes of storage – the first phase in developing a 20MW facility. A planning application was submitted on 12 April this year
The facility is due to supply hydrogen to the commercial market by the end of 2023. It is part of an initiative to provide carbon-free transport and clean air, with nearby Glasgow aiming to become the first net-zero city in the UK by 2030.
The Energy Innovation Portfolio competition looked for innovative, replicable large-scale energy storage solutions which could provide a market competitive alternative to conventional commercial large-scale energy storage technologies. Innovative large-scale energy storage will play an important role in decarbonising industry, power, heat and transport.

Graham Cooley, ITM chief executive, said, “We are very pleased to be a partner in Green Hydrogen for Scotland and this first project, Green Hydrogen for Glasgow, will see the deployment of the largest electrolyser to date in the UK.”

Barry Carruthers, ScottishPower Hydrogen Director, said, “ …we welcome this investment in a blend of renewable electricity generation and green hydrogen production promises to highlight the multiple ways in which society can decarbonise by using these technologies here and now.”

Jim Mercer, Business President, BOC UK & Ireland said: “The Green Hydrogen for Glasgow project is both innovative and exciting. It will help to shape the future of energy storage and demonstrate the value of hydrogen to Scotland’s growing low-carbon economy. This project will accelerate development across multiple disciplines – from production and storage, to transportation and end use.”