Centrica Really Can’t Lose At Sizewell
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in The Times.
This is the sub-heading.
Centrica’s £1.3 billion investment in Sizewell C guarantees substantial returns, even with cost overruns.
These two-and-a-half paragraphs explain the funding.
Now we know what Ed Miliband means by his “golden age of nuclear” — golden for the companies putting their money into Sizewell C. Yes, reactor projects have a habit of blowing up private investors. But maybe not this one. It looks more like an exercise in transferring risk to consumers and the taxpayer.
Sure, nobody builds a £38 billion nuke on a Suffolk flood plain without a frisson of danger. But the energy secretary and his Treasury chums have done their bit to make things as safe as possible for the companies putting in equity alongside the government’s 44.9 per cent stake: Canada’s La Caisse with 20 per cent, British Gas-owner Centrica (15 per cent), France’s EDF (12.5 per cent) and Amber Infrastructure (7.6 per cent).
For starters, nearly all the debt for the 3.2 gigawatt plant, three-quarters funded by loans, is coming from the state-backed National Wealth Fund. It’s bunging in up to £36.6 billion, with £5 billion more guaranteed by a French export credit agency.
It looks to me that between them the British and French governments are providing £41.5 billion of loans to build the £38 billion nuke.
These are my thoughts.
Hydrogen And Sizewell C
This page on the Sizewell C web site is entitled Hydrogen And Sizewell C.
Under a heading of Hydrogen Buses, this is said.
At Sizewell C, we are exploring how we can produce and use hydrogen in several ways. We are working with Wrightbus on a pilot scheme which, if successful, could see thousands of workers transported to and from site on hydrogen double decker buses. You can read more about the pilot scheme in our press release
Firstly, it could help lower emissions during construction of the power station. Secondly, once Sizewell C is operational, we hope to use some of the heat it generates (alongside electricity) to make hydrogen more efficiently.
This would appear to be a more general statement about hydrogen and that the following is planned.
- Hydrogen-powered buses will be used to bring workers to the site. A press release on the Sizewell C web site, talks about up to 150 buses. That would probably be enough buses for all of Suffolk.
- Hydrogen-powered construction equipment will be used in the building of the power station.
- It also talks about using the excess heat from the power station to make hydrogen more efficiently. I talk about this process in Westinghouse And Bloom Energy To Team Up For Pink Hydrogen.
This is a substantial investment in hydrogen.
Centrica And Electricity From Sizewell C
The article in The Times, also says this.
Even so, there’s a fair bit of protection for the likes of Centrica, which has also agreed a 20-year offtake deal for its share of Sizewell’s electricity. The price of that is not yet known.
Nothing is said in the article about the size of Centrica’s electricity offtake.
- If they get 15 % of Sizewell C, that would by 480 MW.
- If they get 15 % of Sizewell B + C, that would by 660 MW.
If they use their share to generate hydrogen, Suffolk would have a massive hydrogen hub.
To power the buses and construction of Sizewell C, Sizewell B could be used to provide electricity to create the hydrogen.
How Would The Hydrogen Be Produced?
Centrica, along with other companies, who include Hyundai and Kia, are backers of a company in Hull called HiiROC, who use a process called Thermal Plasma Electrolysis to generate hydrogen.
On their web site, they have this sub-heading.
A Transformational New Process For Affordable Clean Hydrogen
The web site also describes the process as scalable from small modular units up to industrial scale. It also says this about the costs of the system: As cheap as SMR without needing CCUS; a fraction of the energy/cost of water electrolysis.
If HiiROC have achieved their objective of scalability, then Centrica could grow their electrolyser to meet demand.
How Would The Hydrogen Be Distributed?
Consider.
- Currently, the Sizewell site has both road and rail access.
- I can still see in my mind from the 1960s, ICI’s specialist articulated Foden trucks lined up in the yard at Runcorn, taking on their cargoes of hydrogen for delivery all over the country.
- As that factory is still producing hydrogen and I can’t remember any accidents in the last sixty years, I am fairly sure that a range of suitable hydrogen trucks could be developed to deliver hydrogen by road.
- The road network to the Siewell site is being updated to ensure smooth delivery of workers and materials.
- The rail access to the Sizewell site is also being improved, for the delivery of bulk materials.
I believe there will be no problems delivering hydrogen from the Sizewell site.
I also believe that there could be scope for a special-purpose self-propelled hydrogen tanker train, which could both distribute and supply the hydrogen to the vehicles, locomotives and equipment that will be using it.
Where Will The Hydrogen Be Used?
I have lived a large part of my life in Suffolk and know the county well.
In my childhood, there was quite a lot of heavy industry, but now that has all gone and employment is based on agriculture, the Port of Felixstowe and service industries.
I can see hydrogen being used in the following industries.
Transport
Buses and heavy trucks would be powered by hydrogen.
The ports in the East of England support a large number of heavy trucks.
Large Construction Projects
Sizewell C is not the only large construction project in the East of England, that is aiming to use low-carbon construction involving hydrogen. In Gallagher Group Host Hydrogen Fuel Trial At Hermitage Quarry, I talked about a hydrogen fuel trial for the Lower Thames Crossing, that involved JCB and Ryse Hydrogen.
Hydrogen for the Lower Thames Crossing could be delivered from Sizewell by truck, down the A12.
Rail
We may not ever see hydrogen-powered passenger trains in this country, but I do believe that we could see hydrogen-powered freight locomotives.
Consider.
- The latest electro-diesel Class 99 locomotives from Stadler have a Cummins diesel engine.
- The diesel engine is used, when there is no electrification.
- Cummins have developed the technology, that allows them to convert their latest diesel engines to hydrogen or natural gas power, by changing the cylinder head and the fuel system.
- Access to the Port of Felixstowe and London Gateway needs a locomotive with a self-powered capability for the last few miles of the route.
A Class 99 locomotive converted to hydrogen would be able to run with out emitting any carbon dioxide from Felixstowe or London Gateway to Glasgow or Edinburgh.
Ports
Ports have three main uses for hydrogen.
- To power ground-handing equipment, to create a pollution-free atmosphere for port workers.
- To fuel ships of all sizes from the humblest work-boat to the largest container ships.
- There may need to be fuel for hydrogen-powered rail locomotives in the future.
There are seven ports with excellent road and/or rail connections to the Sizewell site; Felixstowe, Great Yarmouth, Harwich, Ipswich, London Gateway, Lowestoft and Tilbury.
The proposed Freeport East is also developing their own green hydrogen hub, which is described on this page on the Freeport East web site.
Airports
Airports have two main uses for hydrogen.
- To power ground-handing equipment, to create a pollution-free atmosphere for airport workers.
- In the future, there is likely to be hydrogen-powered aircraft.
There are three airports with excellent road and/or rail connections to the Sizewell site; Norwich, Southend and Stansted.
Agriculture And The Rural Economy
Agriculture and the rural economy would be difficult to decarbonise.
Consider.
- Currently, most farms would use diesel power for tractors and agricultural equipment, which is delivered by truck.
- Many rural properties are heated by propane or fuel oil, which is delivered by truck.
- Some high-energy rural businesses like blacksmiths rely on propane, which is delivered by truck.
- Electrification could be possible for some applications, but ploughing the heavy land of Suffolk, with the added weight of a battery on the tractor, would probably be a mathematical impossibility.
- JCB are developing hydrogen-powered construction equipment and already make tractors.
- Hydrogen could be delivered by truck to farms and rural properties.
- Many boilers can be converted from propoane to run on hydrogen.
I feel, that hydrogen could be the ideal fuel to decarbonise agriculture and the rural economy.
I cover this application in detail in Developing A Rural Hydrogen Network.
Exports
Consider.
- Sizewell B and Sizewell C nuclear powerstations have a combined output of 4.4 GW.
- A rough calculation shows that there is a total of 7.2 GW of wind farms planned off the Suffolk coast.
- The East Anglian Array wind farm alone is said in Wikipedia to be planned to expand to 7.2 GW.
- The Sizewell site has a high capacity connection to the National Grid.
Nuclear plus wind should keep the lights on in the East of England.
Any excess electricity could be converted into hydrogen.
This Google Map shows the location of Sizewell B in relation to Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands.
The Sizewell site is indicated by the red arrow.
The offshore oil and gas industry has used technology like single buoy moorings and coastal tankers to collect offshore natural gas for decades.
I don’t see why coastal hydrogen tankers couldn’t export excess hydrogen to places around the North Sea, who need the fuel.
It should be born in mind, that Centrica have a good reputation in doing natural gas trading. This expertise would surely be useful in hydrogen trading.
Conclusion
I believe that a hydrogen hub developed at Sizewell makes sense and I also believe that Centrica have the skills and technology to make it work.
Sussex Will Be Leader In Hydrogen Energy Production
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Argus.
These are the first three paragraphs.
The county is today launching its bid to become a pioneer for use and production of hydrogen energy.
Experts will unveil Brighton’s hydrogen strategy this morning showing how the city and surrounding areas are championing a clean energy infrastructure.
With plans for a Worthing crematorium to become the first in the world powered entirely by hydrogen, development of a green energy production facility in Shoreham, and a growing fleet of hydrogen-powered buses in Crawley, the region is already breaking ground in the hydrogen industry – and shows no sign of stopping.
These are my thoughts.
The Plan Is Comprehensive
This document of the Council website, is entitled the Greater Brighton Hydrogen Strategy.
It is very comprehensive and discusses hydrogen in Sussex from all angles.
Every Council in the UK needs to have their own comprehensive strategy like this.
The Report Cautions That Greater Brighton May Need More Renewable Energy
Consider.
- The Rampion wind farm, with a capacity of 400 MW is already operating in the sea South of Brighton.
- This should be joined by the 1200 GW rampion 2 wind farm in the next few years.
It is unlikely substantial onshore wind and solar farms will be built in the area.
Gatwick Airport Is Expected To Need A Hydrogen Supply
The strategy says this about Gatwick and the two Rampion wind farms.
The offshore wind farm Rampion is large enough to be considered nationally significant infrastructure. There
is a second development for this wind farm planned for 2025-6, which will connect into Bolney substation as
per the existing wind farm.The GBEB energy plan suggested that an electrolyser could be sited there, although there are no identified demand locations nearby other than potential refuelling of passing traffic on the A23.
However, considering the relative distance to Gatwick airport, which is expected to be a significant future
demand, there may be an opportunity for a direct pipeline. This would be further into the future and requires
further analysis and bilateral engagement between Rampion and Gatwick. Engagement with Rampion found
that, given the large population supplied by the Rampion wind farms, and the relative lack of other large-scale
renewables locally, these wind farms are unlikely to face significant curtailment and will fully contribute to
decarbonising the local electricity grid. Therefore, using Rampion to produce hydrogen by electrolysis is not
seen as the best use case in the near term.
It looks to me, that because of the electricity demand in the Brighton and Gatwick area, that a big decision needs to be made to create some more renewable capacity.
Could this mean a Rampion 3 or perhaps a fleet of small modular nuclear reactors at Dungeness?
An Electrolyser At Bolney Substation
This Google map shows the position of Bolney substation.
Note.
- The A23 is the main London-Brighton road.
- Bolney substation is indicated by the red arrow.
- The substation doesn’t have very good road access.
- I also suspect that the locals wouldn’t like an electrolyser in their midst.
On a brief look, I suspect that an electrolyser at Bolney substation will be a non-starter.
Shoreham Port As A Hydrogen Hub
The strategy mentions Shoreham Port several times, but gives the impression that progress is slow.
This Google Map shows Shoreham Port.
Note.
- Shoreham is in the West.
- The port reaches a long way to the East.
- The 420 MW gas-fired Shoreham Power station, is at the Eastern end of the port, close to the sea.
There appears to be spaces along the water for developing hydrogen infrastructure.
This page on the H2Green web site is entitled Agreement to Develop Clean Energy Hub for Shoreham Port, Sussex, starts with this paragraph.
Getech, the geoscience and geospatial technology provider and data-led energy asset developer, is pleased to announce that its wholly owned hydrogen subsidiary, H2 Green, has signed a Collaboration Agreement (the “Agreement”) with Shoreham Port.
It lists these three highlights.
- H2 Green granted a two-year legally binding exclusive right to develop a renewable energy hub (the “Hub”) at the Port of Shoreham, West Sussex.
- Under plans submitted by H2 Green to Shoreham Port, the Hub will initially focus on the provision of green hydrogen and renewable electricity to the Port’s fleet of 39 heavy forklift trucks and 12 heavy goods vehicles.
- Green Hydrogen will be sourced by a scalable green hydrogen production, storage and refuelling facility – the economics of which will be optimised by its integration with new solar and wind electricity generation capacity.
- The Hub will then be expanded to facilitate the decarbonisation of more than 800 heavy goods vehicles that enter Shoreham Port daily, and to provide fuel to port and coastal marine vessels.
That is all good stuff, but I do wonder, where the renewable electricity is going to come from.
In Further Thoughts On BP’s Successful INTOG Bid, I looked at BP’s plan for a 50 MW wind farm.
- It will be about twenty miles offshore from Aberdeen.
- With an appropriate electrolyser 50 MW of electricity would produce twenty tonnes of hydrogen per day.
- The electrolyser could be onshore or even offshore.
- The technology has all been developed.
Could H2Green be thinking of developing a similar hydrogen production facility?
Ryze Hydrogen – Every UK Region Needs A Hydrogen Hub
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Hydrogen Central.
This is the first paragraph.
The past few weeks have seen another flurry of new hydrogen cluster announcements across the UK.
The article then lists all the hydrogen recently-announced hubs being developed in the UK.
It is all very detailed and is a must read, if you are interested in acquired a single hydrogen vehicle or perhaps a whole fleet.
Aussie Billionaire Aims To Mine $8bn US Fund For Coal-To-Hydrogen Industrial Conversion
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Recharge.
These are the first two paragraphs.
Twiggy Forrest-owned Fortescue’s project to tap renewable energy on Washington state grid – where surplus hydroelectric power usually exported to Canada and western seaboard – for clean hydrogen production at Centralia site.
Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), owned by Australian billionaire Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest, is planning to convert a former coal mine in US state of Washington into a green hydrogen production facility, using funds it hopes to win from the federal government’s $8bn H2 hub fund, the company said on Friday.
These are some other points about FFI’s plans.
- A former coal mine will be converted into a green hydrogen production facility.
- The facility will be located at Industrial Park at TransAlta.
- It will use 300 MW of renewable electricity.
- Production of green hydrogen will be 110 tonnes per day or 40,000 tonnes per year.
Hopefully, they will have Federal Funds to support the development.
The article also details other hydrogen developments in the United States, with hydrogen hubs earmarked for New England, Midwest, West Virginia and Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.
It certainly looks that the United States is getting serious about hydrogen.
Spanish Consortium Forms For $4.4 Billion Green Hydrogen Investment
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Hydrogen Fuel News.
This paragraph outlines the project.
A thirty-three company consortium, called the Spanish Hydrogen Network (Shyne) will be investing into a spectrum of green hydrogen technologies, including the installation of 500 megawatts of renewable H2 capacity by 2025. From there, the capacity will increase to 2 gigawatts by 2030. This represents half of the Spanish government’s goal for the entire country by that year, which is 4 gigawatts of capacity.
The article says this about the creation of hydrogen hubs.
The green hydrogen project’s goal is to “generate an ecosystem that connects” three H2 hubs.
The goal of the project is to develop an ecosystem in which three planned industrial H2 hubs in the Murcia, Catalonia and Basque regions will be connected. The project is also meant to support the development of two new innovation hubs in Castile-La Mancha and Madrid and will target the development of solid-oxide electrolyzers and photoelectrocatalysis.
Note that photoelectrocatalysis is the direct production of hydrogen from solar energy.
Port Of Açu And Fortescue To Explore 300MW Hydrogen Plant In Brazil
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on H2Bulletin.
This is the first paragraph.
Brazilian ports have been attracting foreign investors to benefit from its abundant renewable resources. Porto do Açu Operações SA has recently started exploring opportunities to become a hydrogen production hub in Brazil, which H2Bulletin exclusively covered in its recent article.
The location of the Superport of Açu is shown on this Google Map.
Açu is marked by the red arrow and is about 300 km. from Rio de Janeiro.
Over the last year or so, I’ve noticed several ports declare the intention of becoming hydrogen hubs.
- Hydrogen can be used to power dock vehicles, tugs, work-boats and ships.
- Hydrogen can be used to support local businesses with high energy needs.
- In the future hydrogen may power freight trains to and from the port.
Do ports feel hydrogen is a good way to decarbonise?
Do Ports Make Good Hydrogen Hubs?
Consider.
- Ports and their staff are used to handling cargoes of all types including gases, chemicals, liquids and liquified gases.
- They generally have space for the tanks to store hydrogen.
- They have a good electrical connection for an electrolyser to create green hydrogen.
- They have lots of uses for hydrogen.
Any excess hydrogen can be exported to someone who needs it.
It seems to me, that a port is a good place for a hydrogen hub.
The Anonymous Widower 