Following a feasibility study in 2021 Scotland’s James Hutton Institute (JHI) has opened procurement for a delivery partner for its HydroGlen Project.
HydroGlen is a proposed renewable hydrogen-powered farming community project at JHI’s research farm and residential community at Glensaugh, north- east Scotland. It is intended to demonstrate that it is possible to take an existing operational farm and make it self-reliant based on a combination of on-site generated renewable energy, fuel cells and energy storage involving batteries and hydrogen.
The site energy requirements include residential and commercial loads, as well as supplying planned electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell cars. It will also fuel other machinery which will use HydroGlen as a testing facility. Renewable energy will be used to meet daily electricity demands, with the excess used to produce hydrogen via electrolysis.
In 2024 and 2025 the project aim is for HydroGlen to produce sufficient renewable energy over a three-month operational period to cover Glensaugh Farm’s net energy usage equivalent, while producing green hydrogen via electrolysis and successfully compressing, storing and then reconverting to electricity via fuel cell – without interfering with the normal farm operations.
Once the detailed design work has been completed, the contractor will be required to propose a fixed cost for the delivery of the HydroGlen project and will be obliged to procure the project for that fixed cost acting as the EPC contractor.
Longer term, HydroGlen aims to provide a scalable and replicable model for farming and other rural communities to become self-reliant, low-carbon energy producers and exporters, generating their electricity, heating and transport fuel energy requirements from renewable sources.