The UK government has awarded almost £1million to a pilot hydrogen storage project based on controversial undersea caverns at the heart of a Northern Ireland legal challenge.
Friends of the Earth and community group No Gas Caverns are taking legal action against the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs which approved a marine licence for seven salt caverns under Larne Lough despite environment and biodiversity concerns.
Now it has been revealed that £986,000 of public funds will support the ‘Power-to-X’ project at nearby Ballylumford powerstation.
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The Co Antrim project involves Islandmagee Energy, The Net Zero Technology Centre and Mutual Energy, who have their roots in oil and gas, as well as Larne-based renewables firm B9 Energy.
They said the Department of Business Energy & Industry Strategy (BEIS) funded project its aims is to show how “green hydrogen from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar will be stored in underground salt caverns for later use as carbon free fuel in both the transport and power generation sectors”.
And that Ballylumford is the ideal spot for the development as it already has a strong connection to gas and electricity networks to Scotland and England through the SNIP pipeline and Moyle interconnector.
A spokesperson for Net Zero Technology Centre, renamed from the last of three variations of The Aberdeen Oil and Gas Tech Centre in 2021, announced the BEIS grant on Thursday.
They said: “Supporting the UK’s first ever Hydrogen Strategy this project will drive forward the commitments laid out in the UK Government’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution which includes the ambition to deliver 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030.
“The Power-to-X project is designed as a green hydrogen project with the hydrogen provided by electrolysers on site. Currently over 14% of renewable electricity is lost by having to switch off windfarms.
“The key concept is to run the electrolysers when the electricity system has high levels of wind generation so avoiding the need to switch off the windfarms.
“This 100% renewable electricity is transformed to hydrogen and then stored.
“When electricity production from wind is low, rather than using fossil fuel to keep the lights on, the generator will run on hydrogen, so providing low carbon electricity in still weather conditions.
“To reach net zero we need 100% carbon free generation when it isn’t windy, recognising that the weather could actually be still for quite a long time.
“This project will seek to prove the core engineering needed to make this happen, as well as explore mixing hydrogen with natural gas for use in generators until there is enough hydrogen produced to run generators at 100%.
“At 100% hydrogen from electrolysis powered by renewables there will be zero emissions.”
The project will also include the use of a hydrogen-fired gas turbine.
Phase one of Power-to-X at Ballylumford is expected to take 12 months.
While those behind the plan say it will help develop a high pressure 100% hydrogen network, some are sceptical such projects are being used to prolong our dependence on fossil fuels, while putting industry before the needs of the people and climate.
One expert told us Northern Ireland consumers could do much better from curtailed winds if the right incentives were in place.
The Hydrogen Science Coalition, an independent expert group of scientists, academics and engineers, which aims to give hydrogen advice free from industry bias has also spoken out against blending green hydrogen into the gas grid “due to its limited impact on emissions savings”.
Founding member and professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Cambridge, David Cebon, told Recharge in December: “While hydrogen has an important part to play, we’re concerned that an over-reliance on hydrogen will delay existing, cheaper and scalable solutions like electrification.”
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