Hydrogen – a future for the isles beyond petroleum? Shetland Islands Council is choosing the ‘industrial’ approach to tackle the climate emergency. SHETLAND doesn’t do small. When Sullom Voe Terminal was at full production in the 1980s it was the largest oil export terminal in Europe. Twenty years later, plans were drawn up for the largest and most productive onshore wind farm in Europe. With that particular wind farm in the early stages of being built, the next mega project emerges over the horizon. And this time it is not just big – it also has the calibre of being “transformational” and promises to launch Shetland into the net-zero era, albeit on a massive industrial level. It is now almost a year ago that Shetland Islands Council joined forces with Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and the Aberdeen-based Oil and Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) with the aim of placing the islands right at the heart of a new industry that would decarbonise the oil and gas industry by connecting offshore installations to on and offshore wind farms and, ultimately, produce huge amounts of green hydrogen to satisfy expected local, national and international demand. What started life as the ‘energy hub’ quickly gained momentum and, along the way, became the Orion clean energy project, a name borrowed from Greek mythology that underlines the council’s ambition of ‘reaching for the stars’.
Shetland News 24th Feb 2021 read more »