The Scottish government has unveiled a five-year plan to become a world leader in hydrogen production.
The government said it will invest more than £100m to advance the development of hydrogen power, pledging to use the energy source to meet one sixth of the country’s energy needs by 2030.
The capital investment programme outlined in the draft Hydrogen Action Plan will focus on supporting regional renewable hydrogen production hubs and renewable hydrogen projects.
The first tranche of investment will be a £10m Hydrogen Innovation Fund that will be launched next year.
The aim of the fund will be to drive technological progress and advance innovation and cost reduction within the emerging sector.
Meanwhile, the Scottish government’s energy transition fund is being expanded to a total of £75m to deliver £15m of investment in an Aberdeen Hydrogen Hub.
Additional investment will be made to support the continuing advancement of the technology, including £100,000 to support collaborative industry-academia projects through the Energy Technology Partnership.
‘World leader in hydrogen production’
Commenting on the initiative, Net Zero and Energy secretary Michael Matheson said: “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 and also by supporting a just transition – creating good, green jobs for our highly skilled workforce.
“Scotland has the resources, the people, and the ambition to become a world leader in hydrogen production and our Hydrogen Action Plan sets out how we will work collaboratively with the energy sector to drive progress over the next five years.
“Both renewable and low-carbon hydrogen will play an increasingly important role in Scotland’s energy transition. Our priorities are to get as much renewable hydrogen into the energy system as quickly as possible while supporting the establishment of low-carbon hydrogen production at scale in the 2020s, linked to Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).
“The Scottish government is fully committed to helping the hydrogen sector develop and grow.
“We are investing £100m in renewable hydrogen projects over this parliament, an in addition to this, 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 be at the forefront of the energy sector’s net zero transformation.”
Image: Corona Borealis Studio/Shutterstock
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