Quantifying Scotland’s Green Hydrogen Potential through Advanced Design, Modelling, and Optimization of Energy Hubs

Scotland has a vast wind resource that, if exploited, could more than provide for domestic energy consumption. Producing hydrogen from electrolysis provides a use for the excess electrons, and the produced fuel could be exported to decarbonise Europe. The Scottish Government (2021) intends to create regional hydrogen hubs, defined as a “geographic location (region, city, island, industrial cluster) that hosts the H2 value chain from production, storage and distribution to end-use” reaching 25GW of low-carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2045. These will be in “Energy Hubs” but where should these hubs be? What components should they have? What size should they be? How much will they cost?

The present study aims to answer above fundamental questions about H2 hubs through the creation of a Digital Energy System model. An integrated energy system model was created at the national-scale and local hubs to quantify the potential of Scotland’s wind-to-H2 production. This model showed what was possible IF there was a nationally integrated and optimised energy system. The model optimised energy utilisation, hydrogen production and export of excess energy at the lowest overall system cost levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) and levelized cost of electricity (LCOE).