Yahoo Finance BP announces plans for UK's largest hydrogen power plant in Teesside
BP (BP.L) has revealed plans to develop the UK’s biggest hydrogen power plant in Teesside in a bid to provide energy for local industry and homes, and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The project in northern England, dubbed H2Teesside, would produce up to 1GW of “blue” hydrogen by 2030, which is 20% of the UK’s hydrogen target.
Blue hydrogen is produced by converting natural gas into hydrogen and storing the carbon dioxide emissions from its production.
The company said it plans to stash carbon dioxide from its facility under the North Sea using carbon capture systems, adding that two million tonnes per year could be stored.
According to BP, the move could support jobs in Teesside by development of an industrial hydrogen cluster.
The oil giant has also signed agreements to work with Venator, Northern Gas Networks and Tees Valley Combined Authority.
A final investment decision on H2Teesside is expected by early 2024.
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“Clean hydrogen is an essential complement to electrification on the path to net zero,” Dev Sanyal, BP’s executive vice president of gas and low carbon energy said.
“Blue hydrogen, integrated with carbon capture and storage, can provide the scale and reliability needed by industrial processes. It can also play an essential role in decarbonising hard-to-electrify industries and driving down the cost of the energy transition.”
BP’s chief executive Bernard Looney has previously vowed to be a net zero emissions business by 2050.
UK energy minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan, said: “Driving the growth of low carbon hydrogen is a key part of the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan and our Energy White Paper and can play an important part in helping us end our contribution to climate change by 2050.
“Clean hydrogen has huge potential to help us fully decarbonise across the UK and it is great to see bp exploring its full potential on Teesside.”
It comes as Net Zero Teesside, the region’s world-first clean energy project, was handed £52m on Wednesday to build its new gas-fired power station with carbon capture.
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