RWE, one of the world’s leading global renewable companies, has announced the signing of a contract with professional services firm Jacobs to investigate the production and supply of green hydrogen at the Pembroke Power Station site.
The study will take four months, completing in March 2022, and include investigations into the feasibility of initially installing a 100 megawatt (MW) electrolyser to produce green hydrogen from local and grid connected renewable energy. The project has the potential to grow to several gigawatts (GW) in scale, linked to floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea, and would become one of the UK’s largest green hydrogen plants in development.
Tom Glover, RWE UK Country Chair, said: “As a UK leader in power generation, RWE is perfectly positioned to support the development of the UK hydrogen economy. We are already working with other companies and businesses to help them meet their decarbonisation targets, while supporting Welsh Government achieve its ambitions for Net Zero. Hydrogen will be a game changer in the decarbonisation of heavy industry in South Wales and RWE will be a key partner in helping achieve that.”
The feasibility study will also look at the possibility of supplying green hydrogen for various transport and decarbonisation uses in Pembrokeshire.
Cllr Phil Baker, Cabinet Member for Infrastructure at Pembrokeshire Council said: “Pembrokeshire County Council is pleased to support RWE’s green hydrogen project. The project offers some excellent potential synergies regarding the decarbonisation of transport including buses, and fleet vehicles. The Council is already leading the Milford Haven: Energy Kingdom (MH:EK) project where we are trialling hydrogen cars fuelled from our electrolyser in Milford Waterfront. The MH:EK project also proposes to assess and predict transport hydrogen demand in Pembrokeshire which could be supplied by RWE’s project.”
The knowledge and experience gained from this study will enable a better understanding of the practicalities and economics of the entire RWE project, and will be an important precursor to a funding application under the UK Government’s Net Zero Hydrogen Fund next Spring.
The feasibility study has been partly funded by South Wales Industrial Cluster; a consortium of Wales’ major industry, energy, infrastructure, law, academic and engineering organisations of which RWE is a key member. The cluster was successful in securing support from the public and private sector to develop a range of partner decarbonisation deployment projects for the region.
The project is the first to come out of RWE’s Pembroke Net Zero Centre (PNZC), that was launched earlier this year. The PNZC brings together knowledge and expertise from across RWE’s offshore wind, gas-fired generation and hydrogen businesses to develop solutions in Pembrokeshire that support decarbonisation.
RWE is at the forefront of green innovation and is committing to investing £15 billion in the UK in green energy projects by 2030. The company has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the development of hydrogen projects across Europe, including involvement in GET H2 , NortH2 and AquaVentus. RWE is committed to playing a full part in the delivery of this emerging technology and at the same time creating skilled green jobs.
Further information on RWE’s hydrogen activities can be found at the RWE hydrogen website.
Pictures for the Pembroke Net Zero Centre are available at the RWE Media Centre.