Octopus Energy Generation and renewable energy company RES have confirmed plans to utilise green hydrogen at two Kimberly-Clark manufacturing facilities.
Being explored as part of the £3 billion joint venture HYRO, which aims to develop green hydrogen solutions for energy-intensive industrial businesses with hard-to-electrify processes, the result could see household brands such as Andrex, Keenex and Huggies have a reduced carbon footprint.
With a combined capacity of 22.5MW, on-site electrolysers will use electricity from renewable sources like wind and solar to create green hydrogen, which will be stored and fed into hydrogen-ready boilers inside the factories, replacing industrial natural gas-fuelled boilers. It will create the heat needed in the manufacturing processes for tissues and toilet paper.
The two projects are based in Wales and Kent and have won places on the UK government’s shortlist for funding.
“This deal with Kimberly-Clark means well-loved household brands will soon be manufactured with green hydrogen instead of polluting gas,” said Alex Brierley, co-head of Octopus Energy Generation’s fund management team.
“For heavy industries unable to electrify, hydrogen produced from home-grown clean energy like wind and solar can be a winning solution. We hope more businesses follow their lead to a future without fossil fuels.”
Kimberly-Clark’s work with HYRO builds on the existing relationship between the two companies with Octopus to help decarbonise Kimberly-Clark’s UK business.
Kimberly-Clark already has a power purchase agreement (PPA) to get supplied with green electricity from the Cumberhead wind farm in Scotland, which Octopus Energy Generation manages on behalf of Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust (ORIT).
“These developments represent a huge step towards our ambition to move solely to renewable energy to manufacture Andrex, Kleenex, Huggies, WypAll and Scott in the UK by 2030. A lot of hard work has gone into developing the green hydrogen projects and it’s fantastic to see the UK government selecting them for the funding shortlist,” said Oriol Margo, EMEA sustainability leader at Kimberly-Clark.
Energy generation and storage company Statera recently unveiled plans to develop a 3GW green hydrogen project in Scotland capable of supplying the UK with up to 30% of its 10GW by 2030 hydrogen target.
The major green hydrogen project is set to harness surplus Scottish wind power to power an electrolyser facility. The green hydrogen is expected to supply Statera’s power generating facilities and the UK’s carbon intensive industrial clusters via existing gas transmission pipelines.
The project, if constructed, would be based in Kintore, Aberdeenshire.
Current±’s publisher Solar Media will host the Green Hydrogen Summit on 18-19 April 2023 in Lisbon. The event will explore green hydrogen’s role in shipping, its production, supply chains, financing and renewable hydrogen derivatives and their applications. For more information, go to the website.
