Equinor is spearheading a bid for up to £8.4m of UK Government funding for its proposed HSH Saltend hydrogen production project in Hull. The energy major announced the bid, which is being made through the Government’s Net-Zero Hydrogen Fund, this morning (22 June). The £240m fund is operated by UKRI and was launched in a bid to help accelerate the commercial development of low-carbon hydrogen production projects in the UK this decade. The UK Government recently updated its 2030 ‘low-carbon’ hydrogen production target from 5GW to 10GW in the Energy Security Strategy. Plans for the project were first submitted through the Government’s Cluster Sequencing Process in January 2021. At that point, Equinor stated that it is intending to develop 600MW of hydrogen production capacity in the first instance. It has now stated that an expansion, bringing total production capacity to 1.2GW, could be possible in the longer term. The first 600MW could come online by 2028, Equinor stated in submitting its bid to the Net-Zero Hydrogen Fund. This production will be for blue hydrogen. Blue hydrogen is produced using natural gas, with process emissions captured using man-made technologies. This approach is in its relative infancy in the UK at present, but the UK Government is aiming for up to 5GW of blue hydrogen generation capacity to come online this decade. In time, the H2H Saltend project could also be expanded to include green hydrogen generation. Green hydrogen is produced by running water through electrolysers powered by renewable electricity.
Edie 22nd June 2022 read more »