BP is planning a new large-scale green hydrogen production facility in north-east England that could deliver up to 500MWe of hydrogen production by 2030.
HyGreen Teesside will be developed in multiple stages, with an initial phase of some 60MWe aiming to start production by 2025. A final investment decision on the project is expected in 2023.
The company said that it will rely on renewable energy power purchase agreements at first but eventually aims to plug in the clean power it is developing in and around the UK.
BP already has a blue hydrogen project in development on Teesside and said it along with other initiatives in the area will create high-quality jobs in both construction and operations.
The projects will support local education, skills development and the development will also catalyze a highly skilled UK-based hydrogen supply chain, it added.
Louise Jacobsen Plutt, BP senior vice president for hydrogen and CCUS, said: “Low carbon hydrogen will be essential in decarbonizing hard-to-abate industrial sectors including heavy transport. Together, HyGreen and H2Teesside can help transform Teesside into the UK’s green heart, strengthening its people, communities and businesses. This is exactly the type of energy we want to create and more importantly deliver.”
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: ”This exciting project builds on our ongoing development of hydrogen in the area through the Tees Valley Hydrogen Transport Hub. It’ll help pave the way for its use across all transport modes, creating high-quality, green jobs in the process.
”This is excellent news following the recent COP26 summit and I look forward to supporting industry to develop new technologies as we build a cleaner transport system and work towards a net-zero future.”
BP said it is also pursuing proposed projects for green hydrogen production at its refineries in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Lingen in Germany and Castellon in Spain.
It has also carried out a feasibility study identifying opportunities for green hydrogen production in Western Australia and was most recently chosen as the preferred bidder to develop a green hydrogen production hub in Aberdeen.