Hydrogen Fuel Cells Feature Prominently at All Energy Conference

The All-Energy Conference and Exhibition was held in Glasgow on 2 and 3 May 2018  alongside the Sustainable Urban Mobility (SUMS) Conference and zero emission transport and energy applications featured prominently.   In the main conferences, there were presentations about the use of hydrogen on the Orkney Islands, fuel cell bus projects in Europe and the Aberdeen hydrogen bus project in particular. Hydrogen also featured in the speeches of the First Minister and Energy Minister in the Scottish Government.

A Hydrogen Hub was located in the main Exhibition Centre with a wide range of presentations including the Levenmouth Community Energy project from Bright Green Hydrogen; Doosan Babcock presenting the Combined Heat and Power Plant at the new Aberdeen Convention Centre, a market analysis of hydrogen fuel cell applications in the next ten years by Scottish Enterprise; stationary fuel cells in residential premises from I-Power, renewable energy and sector shifting from Logan Energy and tidal energy and hydrogen from the European Marine Energy Centre.

The Hydrogen Hub was located in front of Calvera’s mobile energy storage unit which is used in the Orkney Islands and the unit advertises the BIG HIT project.   This is shown in the photographs (left) which  shows the mobile storage unit and the Northwards truck which transports the unit.  The Scottish Government’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, also visited the Hub

Information about hydrogen fuel cell applications was found in the main conference agenda and in All Energy’s sister conference  on Sustainable Urban Mobility.  Nigel Holmes, Chief Executive of the Scottish Hydrogen Fuel Cell Association (SHFCA), gave a presentation on transport and renewable energy generation in the Orkney Islands.  He began by looking at the Scottish Government’s target for CO2 reduction and the growth in renewable energy generation in Scotland and he emphasised the need to convert renewable energy to hydrogen.   Nigel then went on to outline the BIG HIT project.  The project  and Orkney’s work with hydrogen was picked up elsewhere in the Conference.  Paul Wheelhouse, Scottish Government Energy Minister, praised Orkney’s work on the local grid network and hydrogen storage.   Nigel’s presentation is here

The BIG HIT launch event is in Kirkwall on 15/16 May.

Hydrogen fuel cell buses featured at the Sustainable Urban Mobility (SUMS) Conference and Valentine Willmann from HyER (Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Electro-Mobility in European Regions) gave a presentation on fuel cell buses in Europe and looked at the way that they will move from demonstration to commercialisation.  Valentine looked at the need for fuel cell buses and the projects that had been funded by the Hydrogen  Fuel Cell Joint Undertaking (FCH-JU.)  She then went on to look at the Aberdeen Hydrogen Bus Project which enjoys funding from two FCH-JU funded projects – HyTransit and High VLOCity.  The presentations ended by looking at the project’s achievements and the conclusions so far. Valentine’s presentation is here

Further information about FCH-JU fuel cell projects can be found on the Fuel Cell Bus Knowledge Base: http://www.fuelcellbuses.eu