Statera Energy’s plans to produce green hydrogen in Kintore puts the Aberdeenshire town in the same league as Saudi Arabia’s Neom and the Port of Rotterdam, it has been claimed.
The 3GW Kintore Hydrogen project, which began public consultation last week, aims to harness surplus electricity generated by Scotland’s offshore wind resources.
Speaking to Energy Voice, Statera Energy hydrogen project director Don Harrold said the Kintore project is the largest in the UK and one of the largest in Europe.
He pointed to Shell’s 200MW green hydrogen project at the Port of Rotterdam and the 700MW H2 Green Steel in Sweden as some of the larger projects underway in Europe.
“But we are at 3GW, which is significantly bigger,” he said.
“So we are really, definitely, world scale.
“I think the largest project ongoing in the world at the moment is around 5GW, which is in Neom in Saudi Arabia, so we’re up there more in terms of scale.”
Global scale of Kintore Hydrogen
The Saudi government is investing around $8.4 billion (£6.7bn) in the NEOM Green Hydrogen Company, part of its Vision 2030 plan to diversify away from oil.
The project at Neom aims to produce around 600 tonnes of green hydrogen per day by the end of 2026.
Located within the planned Oxagon industrial city, the 110 2oMW alkaline electrolysers will be powered by 4GW of wind and solar.
© Supplied by NeomThe end goal is to produce 1.2 million tonnes a year of green ammonia for export.
Closer to home, Statera Energy’s plans for Kintore dwarf those being progressed by Shell in the Netherlands and H2 Green Steel in Sweden.
Shell’s green hydrogen plans at the Port of Rotterdam involve a 200MW powered by the planned Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind farm.
The facility will produce around 60,000 kg of hydrogen per day, enough to keep 2,300 hydrogen trucks rolling.
Shell will use the renewable hydrogen produced at HH1 to partially decarbonise fossil fuel production at its Energy and Chemicals Park in Rotterdam.
As for H2 Green Steel, the Swedish start-up plans to power a 700-800Mw electrolyser with a combination of hydropower and nearby wind farms.
© Supplied by H2 Green SteelThe green hydrogen will be used to decarbonise steel production in the northern Swedish town of Boden.
‘All the ingredients’ for green hydrogen
As for Kintore, the project’s initial engineering studies for the project are already underway, and Statera is targeting a final investment decision on the project in 2025.
Unlike the projects in Neom, Rotterdam and Sweden, Statera aims to produce hydrogen to decarbonise power generation and industrial processes.
To achieve this, hydrogen produced at Kintore will be blended into the UK gas network using existing pipelines.
While Kintore may not have the same futuristic gravitas as Saudi Arabia’s ‘Oxagon’, Mr Harrold said the Aberdeenshire town is a prime location for green hydrogen production.
“We think Kintore is probably one of the best sites for green hydrogen in Western Europe,” he said.
© Supplied by Kintore Hydrogen“[Kintore has] proximity to a major electrical substation, good access to abundant wind resource and renewable power and non-potable fresh water.
“All the ingredients that you need for green hydrogen are here.”
Targeting two phases of development, the first 500MW phase is expected to be up and running by the end of 2028 if all goes according to plan.
Following this, Statera aims to have the second 2.5GW phase operational by 2032-33.
Once complete, the 3GW capacity will account for 30% of the UK’s 2030 target of 10GW of low-carbon hydrogen production capacity.
Skills and curtailed wind advantages
Mr Harrold said another advantage of Kintore is the high number of skilled and experienced energy professionals in the Northeast of Scotland.
Statera said the Kintore Hydrogen project could provide a peak of around 3,500 jobs both across the site and off site in the UK supply chain during the construction phase and up to 200 operational jobs.
The ability to make use of otherwise curtailed wind power is a further advantage for Kintore, Mr Harrold said.
“Scotland produces a huge amount of renewable wind power, but often it is curtailed because of grid constraints,” he said.
© Supplied by Kintore Hydrogen“We’re going to take that curtailed power and convert it, and curtailed power is available at lower prices than if you’re buying wholesale power.
“That’s our advantage.”
With Scotland at the forefront of UK government plans to install 50GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030, the region will produce far more than electricity its five million people will need.
Mr Harrold said hydrogen can play a key role in efforts to stimulate strategic electricity demand in the Northeast.
“There are really only two options [for grid stabilisation],” he said.
“You find a way to upgrade the grid infrastructure, which we know is very costly, takes a lot of time and is very challenging with social acceptance with pylons.
“Or you take the electrons and you convert them to molecules, which is our route.”
Industrial decarbonisation
Mr Harrold said Statera does not plan to store any hydrogen at the site, with the project’s main aim to produce hydrogen for blending into the UK gas network.
“That’s one of our key design drives, to make sure that we minimise inventories [on site] as fast as possible,” he said.
© DC THOMSON“We want a simple plant that will be robust, safe and will operate effectively for decades.”
Mr Harrold said the ability to blend hydrogen into the UK gas supply is “absolutely critical” for the project and to the growth and expansion of the hydrogen sector.
The UK government announced a decision last year to support blending of up to 20% hydrogen by volume into the UK gas network.
The gas network operator, National Gas Transmission, estimates it will be ready to blend some hydrogen into the grid by the end of 2024.
Hydrogen blending
However, the prospect of blending hydrogen into the gas network has proven controversial.
A recent report from the National Infrastructure Commission found there is “no public policy case” for hydrogen to be used for home heating.
There are also concerns about the potential for increased leaks when using hydrogen blends in homes.
But for decarbonising power generation facilities and industrial clusters, Mr Harrold said pipelines are an attractive option.
“They’re definitely the most economic and the safest way to transport gases,” he said.
He also pointed to the “town gas” used to power the UK prior to 1967, of which hydrogen was a major component.
“Obviously the network has evolved a lot since then, but we’re not into territory that’s completely unknown yet in terms of hydrogen,” Mr Harrold said.
If the UK government decides not to go ahead with hydrogen blending, Mr Harrold said Statera will have to look towards a “contingency”.
If the Kintore Hydrogen project does go ahead, Mr Harrold said it will create around £1 billion in added value to the UK economy with a “significant portion” of that in the Northeast of Scotland.
The project will also provide a transitional opportunity for highly skilled professionals in the oil and gas sector, he said.
“This creates an opportunity to transition into the hydrogen economy, take the skills that they already have and apply them in this new economy,”
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