Green H2 among proposals for former coal terminal

Plans are afoot to convert the site into something of a renewables hub, with a subsea cables factory already in planning, a Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES) facility by Highview Power, and an onshore aquaculture facility by Bakkafrost.

The Hunterston site, on the west coast of Scotland to the west of Glasgow, is owned by the Peel Ports subsidiary Clydeport, which has exchanged an option agreement with Norwegian energy company Statkraft to look at developing the site into a green hydrogen facility.

To make it ‘green’, the electricity to power the electroyser will have to come from a renewable source, such as offshore wind.

Peel Ports Group has been given planning permission to redevelop the marine yard, ‘which it intends will house a facility to support offshore wind developments’, it says.

“Although it is currently in talks with several developers already the company is open to proposals for alternative uses for the marine yard,” it says.

The Hunterston site is also next to two nuclear power stations that are both now in the decommissioning stages.

Hunterston A was commissioned in 1964 and ceased operations in 1994. It was managed by Magnox Electric, which ran a few of the UK’s first-generation nuclear ower stations and as Magnox Ltd, decommissioned the site when it was transferred to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

Hunterston B was commissioned in 1976, when it was owned by the South of Scotland Electricity Board before being privatised and transferred to Scottish Nuclear. Between 1996 and 2009 it became part of British Energy, which managed a few of the UK’s nuclear power stations. 

The power station stopped operating in 2022 and the Office for Nuclear Regulation has granted consent to EDF Energy to carry out the decommissioning.

“This is a very exciting new development for Hunterston – hydrogen is vital to the energy transition, and we’re proud to play our part in making such a development possible here on the west coast of Scotland,” said Lewis McIntyre, managing director – Port Services at Peel Ports Group.

“It is testament to Hunterston’s vast potential to house a range of innovative renewables projects. Not only are we bringing a brownfield site back into economic use, it will contribute massively to inward investment and job creation in a region that desperately needs it.”