Speaking with Phil Cholerton, NovAzure’s hydrogen lead partner, earlier this year, a range of hydrogen start-ups spoke of a tremendous amount of optimism that the time for a hydrogen industry acceleration is now, with order books picking up. With all the economic and geo-political challenges that have arisen since then in the UK and worldwide, as a hydrogen-based business, are you still confident that you can deliver hydrogen-related scaling and growth in 2022?
Despite the challenges, in the UK Trafford Council this month they gave the green light to plans for the UK’s biggest Green Hydrogen Hub, led by Carlton Power, an infrastructure development company.
A Hydrogen Hub is an integrated eco-system of hydrogen production, storage, distribution, and application. The aim of the hub is to accelerate the scaling of low-carbon and green hydrogen projects where the distribution in the near-term is concentrated around the demand. The hub could be on a scale of an industrial cluster, an island, a city or even a region.
The Trafford Low Carbon Energy Park plans support a 200 MW hydrogen project powered by renewable energy, with an initial installation of 15-20 MW. According to estimates, the 200 MW scheme can produce 50 tonnes of hydrogen per day and 4 tonnes per day in the initial phase. If deployed fully, the facility is estimated to have the potential to replace natural gas completely in the UK, a fact that has become increasingly important given the geo-political climate. Other than electrolysers, the facility also includes hydrogen storage and gas compressor systems. A £300 million investment is required for the scheme to deliver green hydrogen for transportation, freight, industries, and heating networks, which would depend on the UK government’s Hydrogen Investment Package.
At NovAzure, our view is that scaling hydrogen startup business models in a hydrogen hub ecosystem provides important value chain accessibility for sustaining business growth in a growing green hydrogen market.
Please tell us about your own experiences of Hydrogen Hubs. Get in touch with Phil at p.cholerton@novazure.com to share your thoughts.
Images source: https://www.traffordgreenhydrogen.co.uk/theproject
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