South Wales’s Green Future a Step Closer with Funding for New Hydrogen Project
Celtic Sea Power has successfully led a collaborative bid to secure £877,000 of funding from Innovate UK’s Launchpad: net zero industry, South West Wales programme to deliver the £2.1 million Milford Haven: Hydrogen Kingdom (MH:HK) project.
MH:HK will test and validate the cost benefit to the consumer and savings that could result from the roll out of ultra-low carbon hydrogen-generating floating offshore wind projects in the Celtic Sea. It lays out an end-to-end solution for producing, transporting and delivering hydrogen to industrial customers.
The project will harness Dolphyn Hydrogen’s innovative technology to provide credible engineering-backed evidence to offshore hydrogen production, while Hyline Cymru, Wales & West Utilities’ 100% hydrogen pipeline, will inform the onshore infrastructure. This engineering evidence will be used to justify future hydrogen investments.
The project will make clear the consenting and regulatory framework, highlighting an appropriate consenting pathway for efficient delivery of offshore renewable hydrogen-based projects.
The Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult will project manage MH:HK. This provides consistency following the organisation’s management of the preceding £4.2 million Innovate UK funded Milford Haven: Energy Kingdom, which completed in 2022 and was led by Pembrokeshire County Council.
Co-funding for the MH:HK project has also been provided through Pembroke Dock Marine, a Swansea Bay City Deal project.
MH:HK comes at an important time as Tim James, Infrastructure Development Director at Celtic Sea Power explains:
“With industry focus on the current 4.5GW Floating Wind leasing round, stakeholders within the Celtic Sea region, spanning Wales and the Southwest, need to do everything we can to maximise the region’s offshore wind pipeline to benefit our transition to net zero.
“Across Wales, hydrogen will play a crucial role in helping various sectors achieve a cost-effective net zero energy system. The MH:HK project will provide credible evidence to support this, whilst increasing confidence in the Celtic Sea offshore wind and wave energy pipeline. That confidence is key if we are to unlock parallel investments to accelerate decarbonisation and enable the maximum economic benefits to be realised.”
Matt Hindle, Head of Net Zero & Sustainability at Wales & West Utilities, added:
“HyLine Cymru could help to provide a route to market for 16TWh of hydrogen production capacity, and contribute to the removal of up to 3.2m tonnes of CO2 each year.”
Stephen Matthews, Head of Hydrogen Ventures at ERM and Dolphyn Hydrogen, said:
“The MH:HK provides an early opportunity to advance offshore hydrogen production in the UK. This is a pivotal step in demonstrating the role hydrogen will play in industrial decarbonisation and we are delighted to work with our like-minded MH:HK project partners.”
MH:HK and its partners are seeking to accelerate the roll out of the full floating wind and marine energy ambition, delivering industrial decarbonisation and net zero whilst supporting the Celtic Freeport, to create of over 16,000 new green jobs, generating £900 million in Gross Value Added (GVA) by 2030, and £13 billion by 2050 into the region.
