NEWS & INSIGHTS | Opinion
Realising Scotland’s hydrogen potential and Europe’s CCUS potential: Net zero horizon scanning
Luca Corradi
Luca works to bring “the outside in”, connecting innovators and academics across sectors and disciplines, to explore the latest technologies that could be adopted to address oil and gas industry challenges. Leading The Net Zero Technology Centre’s horizon scanning activity, he identifies emerging technology trends, cutting through the hype to identify potential areas of impact and application. With a background in business and organisational change leadership, Luca has developed a strong network and is passionate about harnessing this to deliver the next generation of the net zero energy industry.
Outside work Luca loves reading, music and travel. He is married with two young daughters and a dog. He enjoys the rare motorbike ride in Scotland and even rarer ski trip on the Alps.
Scotland’s hydrogen export plan; Europe-wide CO2 storage ambitions; CO2-based heat pump innovations
Chief technology officer Luca Corradi and his team monitor the global net zero landscape closely, following the trends, policies, investments and technology innovations that get the world closer to its shared climate goals. Learn more about our horizon scanning service. This week, Luca shares the latest updates from his team, including a plan for Scottish businesses to grasp the export opportunities hydrogen presents, and looks at the latest developments in UK/EU CO2 capture and storage (CCUS).
Scottish Government commits to realising hydrogen export opportunities in new report
Scotland’s Hydrogen Action Plan targets 5 GW of low-carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030, and 25 GW by 2045. There are over 90 hydrogen production projects in Scotland at varying stages – the vast majority electrolytic – with a total planned capacity of ~12 GW by 2032. These targets, combined with significant demand domestically and internationally, present significant export potential. The report targets the export of hydrogen from Scotland between 2030 and 2035.
Go to page 23 of the report to find the Scottish Government’s commitments, including deepening bi-lateral ties with Germany and other key export markets.
An average of future demand scenarios suggests 443 TWh of hydrogen demand in North West Europe by 2030: the European Commission is targeting 330 TWh (10 Mt) of imports by 2030, with Germany a potential 45-90 TWh alone, whilst the UK could have a demand of up to 40 TWh. By 2050, this could rise to 1297 TWh, with transport and industry sectors representing 40% of demand each, and power and heating 12% and 11% respectively.
NZTC’s Hydrogen Backbone Link Phase 1 report was focused on for exporting hydrogen via pipeline. The report included a short-term action of engaging with EU stakeholders in the North Sea to advance the project, as well as working with Ireland to explore export into Europe, building upon Scotland’s existing gas interconnection to Ireland.
Scotland’s existing supply chain has strong foundations for hydrogen. Analysis shows that Scotland already has 183 companies actively involved in the hydrogen sector domestically and overseas, with a further 107 interested and 855 with potential skills and capabilities for hydrogen.
A Trading Nation: Realising Scotland’s Hydrogen Potential — A Plan for Exports
Co-produced with stakeholders in the hydrogen sector – including NZTC – this plan details the steps required for Scottish businesses to grasp the export opportunities hydrogen presents, as both a commodity and in the supply chain.
Accelerating a Europe-wide CO2 storage market
The European Commission has put in place a framework allowing members to store their captured CO2 in other parts of the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA). This helps countries with limited storage decarbonise using CCS and lets those with excess capacity offer storage services. However, CO2 captured in the EU/EEA, but stored outside that jurisdiction would not be recognised under the EU emissions trading system (ETS) as having been stored.
The report found that Europe would benefit in a scenario where access to UK storage is enabled. In 2040, emitters in Europe using offshore CO2 storage would benefit from a 20% cost saving (€11/t) on average, achieving a cost to emitters for CO2 transport and storage of €41/t. For the EU-27, this increases to a 28% (€16/t) saving and is even greater for countries in NW Europe such as Germany.
This is due to the high quality and large capacity of available storage in the UK-Southern North Sea (SNS), and the reduction in transport distances to the UK compared to other options. UK emitters would also benefit from lower CO2 storage costs for its emitters due to CCS projects with a higher scale factor – saving 3% of T&S costs.
It would be cost-effective for EU/EEA-UK cross-border CO2 T&S to be used as soon as it becomes available; in this scenario, 16 MtCOpa from the EU would use UK storage by 2030. Any delay would see increased costs or companies moving their operations outside of Europe.
World’s largest CO2-based seawater heat pump goes into operation
The world’s largest CO2-based seawater heat pump by MAN Energy Solutions has started operation at the Port of Esbjerg in Denmark. To generate heat, renewable energy from nearby wind power is used to draw seawater from the harbour basin. Thermal energy is then extracted before it is pumped back into the sea. Supercritical CO2 is used as the refrigerant in the process. The CO2 is warmed up by the seawater and vaporised, then compressed, reaching temperatures high enough to boil water.
The use of excess wind power can also balance the grid if required. By coupling power generation with heat distribution, the system can use excess wind or solar power, convert it to heat that can be stored and sent to their customers on days with little sun or wind.
MAN Energy Solutions has successfully commissioned the first unit of its industrial-scale CO2-based seawater heat pump in Esbjerg, Denmark.
Photo credit: MAN Energy Solutions/Sebastian Vollmert
Operated by utility company DIN Forsyning, the new 70 MW heat pump plant will supply approximately 280,000 MWh of low-carbon heat annually to the district heating networks of Esbjerg and the neighbouring town Varde. It will cover the heating needs of 25,000 households, while reducing CO2 emissions by 120,000 tons per year.
The facility is part of the transition to replace the city’s coal-fired power plant, which has already ceased operations. It operates in tandem with a new 60 MW wood chip boiler that uses sustainable wood chips and a 40 MW electric boiler plant, which serves as a peak and backup load facility.
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