A new paper released by think tank Policy Exchange has outlined that curtailed wind generation could be used for green hydrogen production.
The Turning Wasted Wind into Clean Hydrogen report, released in partnership with LCP Delta, argues that the cost of curtailment will reach £3.5 billion annually by the end of the decade, something that could be used to generate green hydrogen.
According to the report, in 2022 the volume of wasted wind generation was sufficient to produce over 118,000 tonnes of green hydrogen, rising to 455,000 tonnes by 2029. The cost of congestion payments between 2021 and 2022 stood at £350 million, something that could be mitigated in the future should it be used for green hydrogen production.
Although it is difficult to argue with the facts within the report, it is worth noting that the green hydrogen industry is still very much in its infancy and the need to scale production and demand for the clean energy carrier is paramount. The statistics provided by the report should stand as a means to guide future policy on green hydrogen and highlight the potential of using wind curtailment as a means to produce the green gas.
Interestingly, the report outlines several benefits should the government encourage electrolyser adoption in heavily curtailed areas, such as Scotland. This includes being able to displace two-thirds of the 700,000 tonnes of the UK’s current, carbon-intensive grey hydrogen consumption annually.
Grey hydrogen is often produced via fossil fuels and thus has a high carbon footprint. Blue hydrogen. which has a lower carbon intensity, is being explored as a means to decarbonise the already mature hydrogen market at an affordable cost. Green hydrogen is likely to be widely adopted when it achieves cost-parity with existing “colours”.
But to reduce the costs, there needs to be more produced. Using wind curtailment is a great opportunity to do so, and this is heavily referenced throughout the report.
Alongside this, the report argues that the green hydrogen that could be produced via curtailed wind could be enough to decarbonise the entirety of the UK’s “7 million tonnes annual steel manufacturing” whilst also helping produce 90% of the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) target for 2030.
Indeed, with cost benefits a central perk to this as well as providing a much needed foundation for the clean energy carrier, many would find it difficult to find a case not to use curtailed wind for green hydrogen production in the years to come.
Wind curtailment continues to burden the GB grid
As recently explored in a blog released by Current± last week, wind curtailment continues to be a burden upon the GB energy system. Despite plenty of wind generation – and several records broken throughout 2023 – much of this wind capacity cannot be used as intended due to grid limitations and constraints.
This also has a detrimental impact on the nation’s energy mix. According to research conducted by think tank Carbon Tracker and released in July 2023, bottlenecks that exist across the GB grid mean that wind generation assets are paid to switch-off on windy days to be replaced with by other technologies such as gas-fired plants. This can both increase GB’s carbon footprint and increase energy bill costs for consumers.
Indeed, without further investment in the grid and its infrastructure, it is unlikely that much of the 50GW offshore wind by 2030 target will be able to be used on windy days. Green hydrogen, however, provides a crucial opportunity to support the energy transition and could be set to prosper due to the current grid limitations.