Offshore hydrogen pilot 'no longer an efficient use of our resources': Vattenfall
The HT1 project had been allocated £9.3m in government funding, but has been scrapped before it could produce H2 from next year
Utility Vattenfall has scrapped a pilot offshore hydrogen pilot off the coast of Scotland, despite being awarded up to £9.3m ($11.9m) in government funding for its development.
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The utility planned to affix an electrolyser to one of its 8.8MW turbines in the Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm by 2025 and pipe the green hydrogen back to shore via a 12km subsea pipeline.
“At the same time, other industry advances meant it was no longer an efficient use of our resources to actually trial hydrogen production any longer.”
However, the utility has attempted to put a positive spin on the decision to scrap the pilot, arguing that its activity during development helped inform UK’s regulatory and consenting framework for offshore hydrogen transportation and storage.
The spokesperson added that the government funding would have only covered a small portion of total project costs and only lasted up until the first few months after operations began.
However, Vattenfall did not provide a specific figure on how much of the £9.3m support promised had been tapped up until the pilot had been scrapped.
This marks the second proposed UK offshore hydrogen project this month to be scrapped by its developer, with SSE and Equinor confirming that the fourth phase of Dogger Bank wind farm will only produce electricity.
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