BIG HIT public meeting

Green Hydrogen – Opportunities for the Orkney Islands
Thursday 22nd September 2016
19:30 – 21:00
Venue: Supper Room, Kirkwall Town Hall

You are invited to this public meeting in Kirkwall Town Hall to hear updates from partners in the European funded ‘BIG HIT’ project about their plans and the opportunities for using ‘green’ hydrogen produced from renewable energy in transport and heating. Speakers include:

• Orkney Islands Council – Councillor James Stockan
• Overview of ‘Green H2’ activities in Scotland – Nigel Holmes, SHFCA
• Eday renewable energy development – Neil Kermode, EMEC
• The Shapinsay perspective – Nic Thake, SDT
• Community and Local Energy opportunities – Mark Hull, CES
• Harbour & Ferries – David Hibbert, OIC

The speaker updates will take about an hour, and will be followed by an open question and answer session. Refreshments will be provided.

What is BIG HIT?

Illustration of the BIG HIT project

BIG HIT (Building Innovative Green Hydrogen systems in an Isolated Territory: a pilot for Europe) is a five-year project aimed at overcoming local grid constraints through the use of hydrogen.

With over 50MW of installed wind energy capacity generating over 46 GWh per year of renewable power, Orkney has been a net exporter of electricity since 2013. However at present many of the islands’ wind turbines are often ‘curtailed’ due to local grid capacity restrictions, losing on average more than 30% of their annual output.

The BIG HIT project will see energy from the community-owned wind turbines on the islands of Shapinsay and Eday, two of the islands in the Orkney archipelago, used to produce hydrogen. The otherwise curtailed capacity will be used to produce low carbon ‘green’ hydrogen and oxygen using a 1MW Polymer-Electrolyte-Membrane (PEM) electrolyser.

BIG HIT will enable the deployment of 10 electric vans, each fitted with a hydrogen fuel cell range extender, and the construction of a hydrogen refuelling station.

In order to demonstrate the potential scope hydrogen also has for heat uses in Orkney, BIG HIT will install two hydrogen-powered boilers at suitable premises to provide zero carbon heat.

For further details, see read: Press release - BIG HIT hydrogen to power Orkney transport and heating