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BP, Aberdeen set up hydrogen production and marketing joint venture

11 March 2022

Aberdeen City Council and UK energy major BP have agreed to set up a vertically-integrated, scalable, green hydrogen joint venture, they said March 11.

Phase one will see the delivery of a green hydrogen production and transport refuelling facility powered by a solar farm. First production is due from 2024 and it will produce over 800 kg/day of green hydrogen – enough to fuel 25 buses and a similar number of other fleet vehicles.

Green hydrogen for transport might seem a new idea, but Aberdeen said it put in place a hydrogen plan in 2015, which set out “a clear statement on the scale of our ambition to deploy hydrogen power in Aberdeen.” It already has waste collection vehicles fuelled by hydrogen (see below image).

More local, renewable energy sources, including developments that emerge from the ScotWind offshore wind leasing round, will enable expansion.

BP said when it announced its successful ScotWind bid in January that Aberdeen would become its global operations and maintenance centre of excellence for offshore wind.

Future phases could see production scaled up for the rail, freight and marine transport sectors, as well as heat and potentially export too.

Aberdeen City Council and BP have committed £3mn on the initial design work and they expect to make a final investment decision early next year 2023. For more details, please see here.

Aberdeen City Councillor Jenny laing with the new hydrogen waste lorry Hector at Kittybrewster hydrogen refuel station in February this year

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