The Scottish government has outlined hydrogen production targets, to be underpinned by £100 million of funding, in a new plan out for consultation.
The draft hydrogen action plan (50 page / 1.5MB PDF) sets out how the Scottish government is seeking to deliver its hydrogen policy statement, which was published in December 2020.
The action plan reiterates the ambitions for Scotland to have 5GW of installed hydrogen production capacity by 2030 and 25GW by 2045.
The government has also reconfirmed a commitment to delivering £100m of funding for hydrogen projects as part of its £180m Emerging Energy Technologies Fund. A call for projects is expected in early 2022, with the funding to be deployed over a period of five years. The action plan refers to a call for renewable projects and infrastructure rather than renewable and low-carbon and so it is currently unclear whether low-carbon projects will be eligible. Unabated hydrogen production projects will not be funded.
The new draft action plan also details Scottish government plans to expand hydrogen export. It is currently exploring opportunities with Germany and is seeking to confirm memorandums of understanding with Denmark, regions of Germany and France within the next year. A hydrogen export plan will be developed alongside a review of ports infrastructure in preparedness for hydrogen export, starting in 2022.
The draft plan closely aligns hydrogen production with expanding capacity ambitions for offshore and onshore wind. It gives a timeline for the next two ScotWind leasing rounds, with ScotWind 2 shown to be scheduled around 2023/2024, and ScotWind 3 around 2026/2027.
The timetable also references the Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas Decarbonisation (INTOG) leasing round. The government has suggested that offshore wind projects to supply electricity to oil and gas platforms will be in construction and operation by the mid-2020s.
Energy law expert Amy Stirling of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law, said: “INTOG projects being operational by the mid-2020s is extremely ambitious. It is likely to be unachievable unless rapid changes are made to data collection requirements for offshore wind – with normally at least two years of site-specific bird data being required.”
The draft action plan disclosed that many of the ScotWind 1 bids incorporated hydrogen production into their development plans. Planning consent guidance on large-scale hydrogen production facilities onshore and offshore is expected in 2022.
“The Scottish government’s support for onshore and offshore wind to facilitate its hydrogen ambitions is commendable and the information on future leasing rounds will be welcomed by industry,” Stirling said.
“Much of the language around the production of renewable hydrogen, however, continues to focus on hydrogen production when the grid is constrained, and there is very little recognition of the role of dedicated renewable energy to hydrogen production facilities. To stimulate demand for hydrogen at a large scale, ensuring security of supply of electricity for hydrogen production will be key,” she said.
“A hydrogen producer and ultimately end-users cannot be reliant on an electricity source that is only available when the grid is at capacity. Clear recognition of the role of dedicated renewable resource would be very welcome,” Stirling said.
Gary McGovern of Pinsent Masons said the government’s recognition that a strong onshore wind sector is needed to support the development of a range of renewable hydrogen projects was welcome, as was the recently announced proposed target of installing a further 8 to 12 GW of capacity this decade.
“However, to deliver that ambition, a joined-up approach across government departments and policy is required,” McGovern said. “The ambition reflected in the hydrogen and onshore wind policy statements is not matched by the consultation draft of the Fourth National Planning Framework [NPF4], also published last week.”
“The proposed planning policy framework for onshore wind is not ambitious and is, in a number of areas, less clear and more challenging than the current planning framework. It will be disappointing if energy policy is hampered by planning obstacles, but there remains scope for this mismatch to be addressed through the consultation process on NPF4,” McGovern said.
The draft hydrogen action plan also reconfirms the Scottish government’s support for low-carbon hydrogen through the Scottish carbon capture, usage and storage cluster, which was recently awarded ‘reserve status’ by the UK government in its cluster sequencing.
Regional hydrogen energy hubs which host the entire hydrogen value chain from production, storage and distribution to end-use will also be formed through private investment and a “supportive policy environment”, according to the draft plan.
The Scottish government said it would publish an interactive geographic information system hydrogen mapping tool next year which will give information such as the location of constrained renewables electricity and other important infrastructure to support project development and planning.
The draft hydrogen action plan is open for consultation until 19 January 2022
Contact an adviser
