ScottishPower has applied for UK Government backing to support plans for a 100 MW green hydrogen plant.

The proposed site is at the Port of Felixstowe on the Suffolk coast.

It is Britain's biggest and busiest container port, and one of the largest in Europe.

ScottishPower has submitted an application to the Government's Net-Zero Hydrogen Fund (NZHF) seeking support for the project.

Energy Voice says the NZHF will fund the development and deployment of new low carbon hydrogen production to de-risk investment and reduce lifetime project costs.

The Felixstowe plant, which could cost up to £150million, would provide fuel to power around 1,300 hydrogen lorries.

The fuel could also be used to power trains used for rail freight into the port and even ships.

Deepest water

Felixstowe provides some of the deepest water close to the open sea of any European port. Around 17 shipping lines operate from Felixstowe, offering 33 services to and from more than 700 ports around the world.

ScottishPower has said demand for green hydrogen had grown in the wake of rising petrol and diesel prices.

The company's hydrogen director Barry Carruthers said: "The strength of demand from the port itself, logistics and distribution companies and rail-freight companies has given use the confidence to press ahead with this facility. This is a big, industrial-scale project that we're doing at pace."

At the start of May, ScottishPower and Storegga - the firm behind the Acorn carbon-capture project - have formed a partnership to develop green hydrogen production plants across Scotland.

The first project to be progressed will be the Cromarty Hydrogen Project. It is designed to deliver up to 20 tonnes of green hydrogen per day from 2024 and has, subject to customer demand, the potential to scale to 300MW in a series of modular expansion phases.

It will displace existing fossil-fuel sources and enable the supply of green hydrogen into the heating processes of distilleries, with additional potential application to other local manufacturing, food production, and industrial heating applications.

The Cromarty Hydrogen Project follows a successful feasibility study by ScottishPower and Storegga, undertaken in collaboration with Diageo, Glenmorangie, and Whyte & Mackay - all of which have operations in the Cromarty region.

Recruitment drive

And, just two weeks ago, ScottishPower announced its biggest-ever recruitment drive, with at least 1,000 green jobs up for grabs.

This follows a record number of green energy infrastructure projects secured by the company in the first half of 2022.

The new roles will be filled by next summer, and are across all areas of ScottishPower's businesses and at all stages - from trainees to time-served trades and supporting roles.

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