Following a meeting to discuss the Aberdeen Hydrogen Hub, Aberdeen City Council has confirmed that a final investment decision (FID) is expected “later in the year.”
An ‘Urgent Business Committee’ meeting was held on Monday for Aberdeen City Council to decide on an FID for the project in which it is a 50/50 joint partner alongside BP.
Earlier this year, the local authority’s planning committee approved proposals for the Aberdeen Hydrogen Hub, which is being delivered by BP Aberdeen Hydrogen Energy Limited.
Phase one of the project is targeting first production from 2025, delivering over 800 kilograms of green hydrogen per day, enough to fuel 25 buses and a similar number of other fleet vehicles.
As the project develops, it expects to serve rail, truck and marine vehicles, and for the production to take energy from larger-scale renewables like offshore wind.
At the recent meeting, it was outlined that phase one of the renewable energy project will also encompass a solar farm and a grid connection “for both resilience and export”, backed by a green power purchase agreement.
The solar farm is earmarked for the former Ness landfill and will connect to the site on Hareness Road by an underground solar grid connection.
It was revealed that the hydrogen hub will use power from the grid when its own green power is unavailable.
The meeting held by Aberdeen City Council on Monday aimed to make a decision on the approval of phase one, which would lead to the local authority making FID.
However, following an amendment being submitted, the discussion was held behind closed doors as it related directly to the finances of an independent firm, in this case, BP.
Aberdeen City Council told Energy Voice: “The revised business case was approved at Monday’s Urgent Business Committee.
“Our partners at BP, and the joint venture directors, will consider their approvals of the investment, with a final decision expected later in the year.”
In March 2021, a full council approved a budget of £19.4 million over the financial years 2021/22 and 2022/23.
In the document accompanying Monday’s meeting, the council confirmed that it has provided £1.975 million of funding to the joint venture company to support the development of phase one.
Aberdeen City Council picked BP as the preferred bidder to build the production hub last year.
This comes as the UK energy supermajor posts its third quarter results. BP revealed that it made profits of £2.7 billion during the three months ending 30 September.
The firm’s earnings were up from the previous quarter when it made £2.1bn, however, profits have taken a considerable drop from Q3 2022 when the firm reported net profits of £6.71bn.
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