Statera Energy has obtained planning approval from Aberdeenshire Council, Scotland, for the UK’s largest green hydrogen project. Having already won Government backing via the Net Zero Hydrogen Fund, Kintore Hydrogen could deliver £400 million to the Aberdeenshire economy.
Kintore Hydrogen will produce zero carbon green hydrogen from renewable energy, including from surplus power from Scottish wind farms that would otherwise be turned off to balance the grid. The low-cost, low-carbon hydrogen can be used by carbon-intensive industries to replace gas, and improve the UK’s energy security.
Kintore Hydrogen will be one of the largest projects of its kind in Europe. The first 500 MW of operational capacity is expected to be online by 2030, and when operating at its full 3 GW capacity Kintore Hydrogen will cut up to 1.4 million tpy of CO2 by displacing the use of natural gas.
This nationally significant project will enable the development of more renewable energy sources, like offshore wind, and will save billpayers billions in curtailment costs – where wind farms are paid to switch off when it is windiest. The volumes of green hydrogen produced by Kintore Hydrogen will play an essential role in decarbonising the UK’s carbon-intensive sectors, such as heavy industry and flexible power generation.
The Kintore project represents a potential way to achieve the UK's hydrogen ambitions: reducing curtailment costs for wind which are pushing up consumer bills, producing at the scale needed to meet decarbonisation goals, and offering a significant reduction in the price of green hydrogen. Kintore is projected to deliver £1 billion of economic benefits to the UK economy over the project lifecycle.
Kintore Hydrogen will also provide significant support to the green skills transition. The project is expected to create approximately 3000 jobs during its construction and 300 permanent jobs once operational.
Tom Vernon, CEO Statera Energy, said: “We are delighted to have secured planning approval for Kintore. This marks a major step forward in delivering the UK’s clean hydrogen ambition while supporting our energy independence, and accelerating the development of homegrown clean energy alternatives for large industrial users.”
Kintore’s strategic location, behind grid transmission bottlenecks and close to abundant wind power from the North Sea, can also help to deliver billions in cost savings to bill payers by alleviating constraints on the national power system. Its location calls for repurposing or new additions to the National Gas network to transport hydrogen at scale and serve key industrial regions across the country, such as industrial clusters at Grangemouth, Teesside, and Humberside.
Vernon added: “Over the coming years, the sheer volume of wind generation coming onto the system in the UK will make electrolysers critical for harnessing wind energy that would otherwise go to waste. Kintore Hydrogen is designed to fully capitalise on the potential that hydrogen has to offer. The location and scale of this project means it can make best use of surplus wind power, significantly lowering hydrogen production costs. It will help balance the grid, contribute to the UK’s energy security, and support the decarbonisation of the UK’s hard-to-abate industries and power sector.”