Tees Valley to host UK’s largest ‘blue’ hydrogen production facility backed by BP

It has been announced that the Tees Valley is at the centre of plans to create the UK’s largest ‘blue’ hydrogen production facility.

BP has unveiled plans for a development named H2Teesside which could begin production in 2027 and is targeting 1GW of hydrogen production by 2030.

The project would be integrated with the already-planned Net Zero Teesside and Northern Endurance Partnership carbon capture, utilisation, and storage projects in the region.

The announcement comes following the news that Net Zero Teesside and Northern Endurance Partnership project has secured £52m in private and public funding for the scheme.

The proposed development is currently undergoing a feasibility study which is expected to be completed later in the year and a final investment decision is expected to come in 2024.

Ben Houchen, Tees Valley mayor, explained: “This great news is just the icing on the cake of the past couple of weeks, when we’ve seen announcement after announcement on how Teesside, Darlington, and Hartlepool are set to play their part in the clean energy revolution and the innovative sectors of the future on the way to Net Zero.”

“We have been working alongside BP for years on our Net Zero Teesside and hydrogen transport projects, with the former getting a huge funding boost yesterday. The announcement is yet another vote of confidence in our region as it’s becoming increasingly clear there’s no better place to do business in the sector than right here.”

He continued: “The clean energy sector is central to my plan for jobs, creating thousands of good-quality, well-paid jobs in these industries for generations to come. It won’t be long before other global businesses are attracted to invest here.”

Blue hydrogen is produced by converting natural gas into hydrogen and carbon dioxide which is captured and permanently stored. The proposed facility could turn the region into a clean energy ‘powerhouse’, if industries convert to using hydrogen over natural gas and other energy sources.

Dev Sanyal, executive vice president of gas and low carbon energy at BP, commented: “Blue hydrogen, integrated with carbon capture and storage, can provide the scale and reliability needed by industrial processes.”

“It can also play an essential role in decarbonising hard-to-electrify industries and driving down the cost of the energy transition.”

Anne-Marie Trevelyan, UK energy minister, added: “Clean hydrogen has huge potential to help us fully decarbonise across the UK and it is great to see BP exploring its full potential on Teesside.”