ScottishPower ponders hydrogen hub at Felixstowe

ScottishPower, with Hutchison Ports, is exploring the opportunity to develop, build and operate a multi-hundred MW green hydrogen production facility at the Port of Felixstowe – with the potential to decarbonise industry and transportation in the region.

Both companies have set out their vision to help create a greener port, which could provide clean fuel for customers at Britain’s busiest container port.

Plans are being developed to use green hydrogen for onshore purposes, such as road, rail and industrial use, with the potential to create liquid forms, such as green ammonia or e-methanol. This could, in turn, provide clean fuels for shipping and aviation, and create opportunities for cost-effective export to international markets.  The project aims to continue engineering and site development works to align with customer demand from 2025 onwards.

Being ‘homemade’, green hydrogen has clear benefits for the security of UK energy supply and is a safe, long-term energy solution that could be vital for those who cannot decarbonise their operations through renewable electricity alone.

As well as accelerating the potential for cleaner industrial processes at the port, green hydrogen is poised to transform the heavy transport sector, which is a significant emitter of the UK’s current carbon emissions.

Barry Carruthers, Hydrogen Director at ScottishPower, said: “This strategically important project could potentially create a clean fuels hub that could unlock nationally significant decarbonisation for the region, as well as playing a role in international markets. It’s perfectly located not far from our existing and future offshore windfarms in the East Anglia region, and demonstrates how renewable electricity and green hydrogen can now start to help to decarbonise road, rail, shipping and industry.”

Dr Therese Coffey MP, local MP for Suffolk Coastal, said: “I warmly welcome Hutchison Ports’ and Scottish Power’s joint plans to explore opportunities for a large-scale hydrogen hub at the Port of Felixstowe, providing green fuel at the UK’s largest container port. It’s schemes like this – and investment from industry as well as government – which is crucial for us to reach net zero by 2050.”