Green hydrogen innovation competition opens with £500,000 funding pot
Scotland’s Net-Zero Technology Centre has launched a competition to support next-generation electrolysers, which will be key to scaling Britain’s green hydrogen production capacity.
Published 7th March 2024
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Up to £500,000 of funding is available through the competition, to be shared among a maximum of five projects. Applicants have until 14 April to submit their bids.
The UK is aiming to host 10GW of ‘low-carbon’ hydrogen production capacity by 2030, of which at least 5GW should be accounted for by green hydrogen. Green hydrogen is produced by separating the hydrogen and oxygen molecules found in water using electrolysis, in a process served by 100% renewable electricity.
The Net-Zero Technology Centre, based in Aberdeen, is looking to support the developers of more efficient electrolyser technologies,
“Our funding competitions always bring to the fore a dynamic range of technologies that drive progress toward global energy goals,” said the Centre’s programme manager Darren Gee.
Scotland’s Minister for Energy, Just Transition and Fair Work, Gillian Martin, confirmed that the funding for the competition is coming from the Scottish Government’s Energy Transition Fund.
She said more efficient electrolysis “will make hydrogen more attractive to exporters and help secure new markets for [Britain’s] abundant renewable energy resources”.
The news from the Net-Zero Technology Centre comes shortly after the UK Government selected seven hydrogen projects to share some £21m of funding from its Net-Zero Hydrogen Fund.
Collectively, the seven projects have the potential to add 800MW of hydrogen production capacity in Britain.
Included in the list of winners is Suffolk Hydrogen, which will produce green hydrogen for use in refuelling vehicles at the construction site for the Sizewell C nuclear power station. Another green hydrogen production project at RWE’s Pembroke Power Station site in Wales was also supported.
Energy Efficiency and Green Finance Minister Lord Callanan emphasised that the funding builds on a package provided in December 2023, to 11 hydrogen production and refuelling projects.
Hydrogen UK’s chief executive Clare Jackson said the further funding “underscores the transformative power and versatility of hydrogen as a bedrock for secure, clean energy solutions”.
“Such pivotal announcements fortify the UK’s burgeoning hydrogen economy, accelerating us towards meeting our ambitious production targets,” Jackson added.
I first met hydrogen from electrolysers in 1949! The Company was Howards of Ilford, trail blazers in those days, of catalytic hydrogenation.
Worth mentioning, perhaps, the concomitant oxygen, which was used industrially, is this still the practice?