The Orkney Islands of Scotland are hosting the development of a €13 million hydrogen project, called BIG HIT: Building Innovative Green Hydrogen systems in an Isolated Territory. BIG HIT is a six-year demonstration project with 12 partners from across Europe that builds on the Orkney Surf ‘n’ Turf hydrogen initiative, helping build resilient local energy systems to overcome the issues of curtailed renewable energy.
Scotland is making great progress with the transition to a low carbon energy system. Figures for 2015 showed that over 50% of Scotland’s annual electricity demand is from renewables, and Scotland’s overall greenhouse gas emissions are now 46% lower than in 1990. Much progress has been made with decarbonisation of electricity and focus is now turning to tackling heat and transport using a new whole systems approach for energy policy in Scotland.
The BIG HIT project aims at creating a replicable hydrogen territory in Orkney (Northern part of Scotland) by implementing a fully integrated model of hydrogen production, storage, transportation and utilised for heat, power and mobility purposes.
The Orkney Islands, located just off the northern tip of Scotland, have over 50 MW of installed wind, wave and tidal capacity. These renewable sources produce over 100% of the electricity demand for the Orkney Islands from renewables on an annual basis. However their electricity output is often limited by grid constraints, which reduces output and lowers income for local communities. BIG HIT uses 2MW of PEM electrolysis to convert it into hydrogen. This hydrogen is transported across the islands and used for transport, heat and power end-uses in the community to heat a local school, and transported by sea to Kirkwall in 5 hydrogen trailers, where it will be used to fuel a 75kW fuel cell (which will provide heat and power to the harbour buildings), and a refuelling station for a fleet of 5 fuel cell vehicles.
BIG HIT is a pilot and demonstration project which aims to create an integrated low carbon and localised energy system in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. BIG HIT is establishing a replicable model of hydrogen production, storage, distribution and utilisation for low carbon heat, power and transport. BIG HIT was selected as the first hydrogen project to receive funding from the European Commission’s Fuel Cells Hydrogen Joint Undertaking ‘Hydrogen Territories’ call, and is a leading example of international cooperation to deliver a pioneering HFC energy system.
As specific objectives we can consider:
- Delivering the Local Authority’s Orkney Hydrogen Economic Strategy
- Conversion of curtailed RE (wind & tidal) to H2
- Methodology to transport hydrogen
- Demonstrating replicable hydrogen economy solutions
- Possibility to export results to other isolated locations
- Environmental improvements
- Reduction of GHG emissions
- Bringing Economic Benefits to Island Communities (savings and new jobs)
- Improve Local Public Acceptance of Hydrogen
- The Demonstration of Orkney as a Hydrogen Territory
- Contribution to Clean Hydrogen Partnership targets
