Levenmouth Community Energy Project receives £4 million from the Scottish Government’s recent allocation of the Local Energy Challenge Fund. The project is a partnership between Bright Green Hydrogen Ltd, Fife Council, Toshiba, Leven Valley Development Trust; Fife College; BOC (for hydrogen transport); Green Business Fife; Community Energy Scotland; and the Scottish Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association (SHFCA).
The project, which aims at shaping the future prosperity of Levenmouth communities through a number of green hydrogen projects, has been awarded £4million of Government funding. Based at the Hydrogen Office in Methil and run by Bright Green Hydrogen, the new scheme involves the facility being developed into the world’s foremost demonstrator of innovative applications of hydrogen derived from renewable sources.
This includes Levenmouth becoming the home of Europe’s largest fleet of hydrogen dual-fuel vehicles (25) including Ford Transits (10), Renault Kangoo vans (10), and refuse collection vehicles (2). Hydrogen refuelling is to be installed at both the Hydrogen Office and at the Fife Council vehicle depot at Bankhead in Glenrothes.
The visionary project, which would position Levenmouth at the heart of the next generation of clean energy evolution, may also power part of the heating of Leven swimming pool by hydrogen produced at the Hydrogen Office. This would not only bring economic benefits to the area but is widely considered as a valuable demonstration of how hydrogen can decarbonise heating applications in Scotland and help secure future energy supplies for generations to come.
Hydrogen will be stored at the Methil site and reconverted to electricity at times when onsite wind and solar generation is low. This will help offset the intermittency of renewable generation and as a result, improve the business park’s ability to be energy self-sufficient. Such an approach will also demonstrate how more renewable energy can be connected to the grid nationally by alleviating the network export constraints that are becoming all too common in areas such as Scotland in times of peak renewable generation.
The hydrogen energy management system at site will be implemented by project partner, Toshiba, which will also play an active role in the development of project learning.
Bright Green Hydrogen’s Chief Executive, George Archibald, welcomed the funding news: “The project team of David Hogg, Iain Todd, Barbara Whiting and Stephen Stead has worked hard to capitalise on its collective expertise and to develop robust designs for this project - against tough competition from the whole of Scotland. We are delighted that this effort has paid off, and we look forward to a year of implementing this project and ensuring its successful completion.”
Fife Council’s Depute Leader and Executive Spokesperson for Economy and Planning, Councillor Lesley Laird, said: “For some time, Fife Council has strived to achieve a leading innovative position in the energy sector in Scotland. This is very important for the local community and indeed the Fife region in terms of our becoming a leading sustainable energy force. This funding award could only have been achieved with support from a number of groupings within the Council and together with the project team, it is a crucial linchpin that enables us to progress these exciting developments.”
The project is a great example of the type of collaboration and partnership working that is at the leading low-carbon technological innovation in Scotland.
More information can be found here: http://brightgreenhydrogen.org.uk/
Source: Keep Scotland Beautiful
Supporting Scotland's Towns