Meeting of the Parliament 11 November 2015
First of all, Presiding Officer, I must apologise to you and Mike MacKenzie for not being able to stay until the end of the debate.
I thank Mike MacKenzie for bringing this motion to Parliament, because I think that it addresses an interesting and important factor in Scotland’s energy future. All of us in the chamber know that the Scottish Government has set progressive targets for and introduced initiatives to boost Scotland’s renewable energy sector. For example, Scotland now meets more than 50 per cent of its electricity needs from renewable sources and we hope that, by 2020, we will be meeting 100 per cent of our electricity demands from such sources. We will continue to work towards that goal.
In order to help our energy industry to grow, we need to invest in new and developing technologies, and I believe that we need to look in particular at energy storage, which is a solution to one of the renewable energy sector’s biggest problems. In many cases, excess energy that is generated by popular renewable sources such as wind turbines is lost because it cannot be stored effectively.
I am therefore proud to join my colleagues in support of Scottish Renewables and its publication of “Energy Storage: The Basics”, which showcases some of the most successful new storage technologies in Scotland. New storage technologies will allow us to harness the maximum amount of energy that is produced and to fuel our country through renewable sources at any time, not just when turbines are turning or the sun is shining.
As Mike MacKenzie has rightly pointed out, the energy storage industry alone will be worth roughly £20 billion globally by 2022. It is therefore essential that Scotland develops a strong energy storage sector and thereby assures a place for itself in that growing global market.
The continued development of efficient energy storage technology is particularly important to me, as the energy sector drives a great deal of industry in my Kirkcaldy constituency. I would therefore like to focus on one type of energy storage that is specific to my constituency: hydrogen fuel cells.
I was pleased that Scottish Renewables highlighted the work that is being carried out by the Hydrogen Office at Fife energy park, which is located in Methil, as a case study for the expansion of hydrogen fuel storage. The Hydrogen Office was founded in 2011 with funding from Scottish Renewables and other local energy-aware organisations, with the goal of promoting efficient renewable energy, specifically through hydrogen power. It now converts any excess energy that is produced by its wind turbine into hydrogen gas, which is stored in a high-pressure stainless steel tank.
That fuel can be transferred to a 10kW fuel cell and used to power the Hydrogen Office at the energy park at up to 80 per cent efficiency when the wind turbine does not provide enough real-time electricity to the facility. When full, the fuel cell can power the Hydrogen Office for up to two weeks. Perhaps the best benefit of using hydrogen to power the Hydrogen Office is that water is the only by-product of the process. By using hydrogen power, the Hydrogen Office has eliminated its carbon emissions entirely.
I reinforce for members that hydrogen fuel storage is not a technology that is feasible only for large-scale facilities. The Hydrogen Office’s parent organisation, Bright Green Hydrogen, has created a pilot programme based in Levenmouth for the use of hydrogen fuel cells in vehicles. A fleet of 20 electric cars and vans plus two bin lorries use hydrogen fuel to continually charge their batteries. That allows cars to run for up to 200 miles without stopping.
The Hydrogen Office is only one venture in the grand scheme of Scotland’s energy needs, but its success shows us that hydrogen fuel cells and new energy storage technologies in general have an increasingly important place in Scotland’s energy industry. The expansion of hydrogen fuel cell technology into smaller projects, such as powering cars, will help Scotland’s transition to an increased reliance on renewable sources.
The conversion of renewable energy to hydrogen gas could replace petrol, coal and natural gas in the future, and it could eliminate entirely Scotland’s need for non-renewable sources of energy. I am proud to say that an organisation in my constituency has been at the forefront of developing that new technology, and I know that it will soon be able to apply its new innovations across Scotland.
17:32