The objective of this project is to create a vision and a pathway that assesses the key drivers for the creation of a hydrogen system in Cumbria.
Objectives
The objective of this project is to create a vision and a pathway that assesses the key drivers for the creation of a hydrogen system in Cumbria. This project’s objectives are to look at and develop the following areas, which are:
The potential for substantial local value creation as a regional supplier of Hydrogen
The Irish Sea and coastline offer opportunities for generation at scale of “blue” hydrogen with CCUS and “green” hydrogen from intermittent renewables
The nuclear energy heritage, capability and presence of key stakeholders provides an opportunity to deploy new technology (eg SMR, AMR, HTR) for both baseload power and hydrogen generation
And, opportunities for hydrogen infrastructure given existing physical assets
o Local hydrogen and CO2 storage site development in geological structures
o Adjacency opens the potential to connect to HyNet being developed in the Cheshire-Liverpool-Manchester-North East Wales regions
o National Grid Gas Transmission infrastructure running through the county could be repurposed for long distance hydrogen transmission in the future
o And mitigation options given the relative weakness in the existing electricity power grid network
Clean Energy investments in offshore wind, nuclear and hydrogen will enable a whole energy system “Clean Energy Cluster” which will stimulate new growth in jobs, skills and investment throughout the Clean Energy and Hydrogen supply chains.
The objective to create an ambitious coherent Vision and Pathway towards a hydrogen economy in Cumbria, which will demonstrate the viability of hydrogen as a feasible and affordable route to decarbonising a predominantly rural and physically large county. The project will identify the actions for stakeholders and investors to accelerate progress towards making this happen and establish what next steps could look like.
Learnings
Outcomes
The outcome of the project is a study that investigates the feasibility of Cumbria becoming a producer, distributor and utiliser of hydrogen.
Cumbria’s particular advantages relative to other areas of the UK in the hydrogen/net zero space lie in:
• Potential for blue hydrogen production at scale in Barrow o Potential for use of undeveloped gas from East Irish Sea as feedstock o Potential for import of LNG as feedstock o Good connections to NTS for natural gas supply and/or hydrogen offtake
• Potential for hydrogen production from electrolysis
· Offshore wind farm capacity in East Irish Sea
· Nuclear generation at Sellafield, including EPR, SMR, AMR
· Direct thermal dissociation of water from AMR
• Access to large scale CO2 storage o Morecambe fields represent strategic scale CO2 store for UK
• Access to hydrogen markets
· It must be admitted that local energy demand is limited
· Sellafield represents market for early production
· Larger scale production will be exported outside Cumbria
· Through the NTS to the rest of the UK (as a blend, or as 100% hydrogen)
· Through gas interconnectors to Ireland and Northern Ireland (as a blend or as 100% hydrogen)
The report sets out a hydrogen vision for Cumbria over the period from 2021 to 2050. The key message is that in addition to decarbonising the economy of the county, Cumbria has the potential to become a strategically vital hydrogen producer and supplier for the whole of the UK, as well as a permanent CO2 storage location.
Lessons Learnt
Setting a clear scope ensured that the report did not deviate from what it had set out to achieve.
Having a clear view within the report on suggested next steps was important to maximise on the opportunities established in the report.
