Britain’s Busiest Container Port Could Become Green Hydrogen Fuels Hub

August 9, 2022, by Adnan Durakovic

ScottishPower and Hutchison Ports are exploring the opportunity to develop, build and operate a multi-hundred MW green hydrogen production facility at the Port of Felixstowe, 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, ScottishPower, a subsidiary of the energy major Iberdrola, said.

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.”

The project aims to continue engineering and site development works to align with customer demand from 2025 onwards.

”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,” Barry Carruthers, Hydrogen Director at ScottishPower said.

”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.”

ScottishPower Renewables is developing a GBP 6.5 billion, 3.1 GW East Anglia Hub located in the North Sea, off the east coast of East Anglia, England.

The hub is made up of the East Anglia ONE North, TWO, and THREE offshore wind farms and will comprise more than 200 Siemens Gamesa 14+MW offshore wind turbines installed in water depths greater than 50 metres.

The 1.4 GW East Anglia THREE has recently secured a Contract for Difference (CfD) in the latest auction round.