BP has withdrawn its planning application for its H2Teesside hydrogen project, citing conflicts over the site use and a smaller market than expected for hydrogen produced.
In a letter to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) it said the decision “is based on material and significant changes in circumstances in respect to options for the development of the Teesworks site compared to the position at the time of submission of the H2T DCO application and at the start of the Examination”.
Plans to build a data centre at the site (the area is now a ‘AI growth zone’) would create a conflict over H2T and BP said, “the two proposals are incompatible on the same piece of land”. BP added, “While we maintain that a solution which enabled co-existence of both H2T and the proposed data centre on the Teesworks estate could have been identified, we note that the latter has the support of the Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, who have awarded the primary consent that would be required for the data centre development to proceed.”
It said, “in the absence of an alternative solution enabling co-existence, we are mindful that central and local government will need to consider competing priorities in a very different way than was the case when we submitted the DCO. We recognise that there may be other economic opportunities for the Teesworks site which could advance at pace.”
It also said, “since the submission of the H2T DCO application and the end of the Examination, the hydrogen demand situation in Teesside has also deteriorated as some major industrial consumers have either scaled back operations or postponed decarbonisation plans” increasing development risk.