Net Zero transition specialist Getech (GTC) has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, H2 Green, has won a £0.5m UK government grant to support the development of its H2 Green Hydrogen Project in Inverness.
H2 Green’s Inverness hydrogen hub will form the first part of its green Highlands energy network, and will comprise green hydrogen production and storage, which will initially be sold to bus, rail and logistics transport customers in Scotland. Surplus hydrogen will be distributed more widely as the company scales from 6MW of electrolyser capacity to 24MW, producing an initial 2.5 tonnes of green hydrogen per day rising to 10 tonnes a day.
The project is will start immediately, with the grant funding earmarked for front-end engineering design for the hydrogen production facility, which will be powered by an array of renewable energy generation sources.
The Inverness hub is one of a network that H2 Green plans to develop across the country, and will form the basis of the common design and engineering framework that will be rolled out across future sites.
View from Vox
H2 Green’s hydrogen goals are closely aligned with the governments Net Zero ambitions, with aims to produce 10GW of hydrogen a year of which half is expected to be green hydrogen.
Unlike so-called blue hydrogen, which is produced from natural gas, green hydrogen is produced using only water and renewable energy sources, which powers the process of electrolysis used to separate hydrogen and oxygen in water.
According to the International Energy Agency, this process could save over 830m tonnes of CO2 annually over fossil-fuel based methods of hydrogen production. Meanwhile, concerns over the high cost of producing are dissipating as the cost of renewable energy production falls.
That means it’s entirely renewable, and therefore stands to be a key energy source in the efforts to decarbonise transportation. Getech’s expertise positions it well to play a leading part in the UK’s energy transition plans, which are being supported by a £240m Net Zero Hydrogen fund announced by the government today and from which Getech's grant has been awarded.
This encouraging news come shortly after the appointment of former ITM Power (ITM) chief executive Dr Graham Cooley as H2 Green's chairman. Shares are up 5% on today's announcement.