Scotland has started a five-year strategy to become a global leader in hydrogen energy.
By 2030, the Scottish Government intends hydrogen to provide nearly a sixth of Scotland’s electricity.
The Scottish Government has announced a £100 million fund to assist the ambitions, which would promote regional renewable hydrogen production centers and renewable hydrogen projects around the country.
The first portion of the investment will be a £10 million hydrogen innovation fund, which will be established next year with the goal of accelerating scientific advancement, increasing creativity, and lowering prices in the industry.
“Hydrogen has an important role to play in our journey to a net-zero economy, by supporting the bold, urgent action required to deliver cleaner, greener energy, as well as by supporting a just transition – creating good, green jobs for our highly skilled workforce,” said Net Zero and Energy Secretary Michael Matheson.
“Scotland has the resources, talent, and ambition to become a global leader in hydrogen generation, and our hydrogen action plan lays out how we’ll engage with the energy industry to accelerate development over the next five years.”
Renewable and low-carbon hydrogen, according to Matheson, would play a “increasingly essential part” in Scotland’s energy transformation.
He went on to say that one of the government’s top priority will be to get as much renewable hydrogen into the grid as feasible as soon as possible.
“The Scottish Government is entirely committed to assisting the hydrogen industry in its development and growth,” he said.
“Over the course of this parliament, we will invest £100 million in renewable hydrogen projects, and I am pleased to announce the expansion of our energy transition fund to support the development of a Hydrogen Hub in Aberdeen and help the region become a leader in the energy sector’s net zero transformation.”
The Scottish Government has also announced a £75 million expansion of its energy transition fund, which will spend £15 million in an Aberdeen hydrogen hub to support a hydrogen transportation fleet.
Campaigners, on the other hand, lambasted the plan, calling it a ploy to sneak “fossil fuels through the back door.”
“This is a strategy to smuggle fossil fuels through the back door through the use of blue hydrogen,” said Alex Lee of Friends of the Earth Scotland.
“The First Minister talked last week about moving as rapidly as possible away from oil and gas, but this hydrogen action plan outlines how they will continue to support gas extraction and production for hydrogen.”
“The Scottish Government is promoting blue hydrogen, which is created from gas, as ‘low-carbon hydrogen,’ yet tests have shown that it emits more carbon than just burning gas.”
“The proposal is vague about how much fossil or renewable hydrogen the Scottish Government intends to fund.”
“The Scottish Government is providing financial support to oil and gas businesses which want to employ carbon capture and storage and hydrogen to maintain exploring and using fossil fuels.” Instead, we need to see a rapid shift away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy that is fair to workers.
“Hydrogen could also be utilized to heat houses and power transportation, according to the idea.” However, instead of converting electricity to hydrogen power, these applications are an inefficient, misdirected, and costly use of renewable electricity, which should be utilized to directly power electric cars and keep houses warm.”
