The global transition to hydrogen is increasing demand, and Scotland is rapidly developing its hydrogen economy to meet it. This means there is an abundance of opportunities for Scottish businesses like yours, and we're here to help you get involved.
Its fast-growing hydrogen infrastructure and abundant renewable energy resource makes these ambitions achievable. And with an electrolytic hydrogen production market estimated at 126 terawatt hours and 13 Regional Hydrogen Hubs in development, it's already on its way.
These big ambitions mean there are many economic opportunities for Scottish businesses. These aren't limited to production, either. Other areas of opportunity include hydrogen use in:
Distribution
Storage
Industry
Transport
Chemical feedstock
Exports to the rest of the UK and Europe
Hydrogen innovation network
Scotland's hydrogen innovation ecosystem is growing at a fast pace. Scotland's hydrogen innovation network programme helps companies access the wide range of hydrogen innovation resources available.
SHINe aims to speed up innovation in Scotland, strengthen hydrogen capabilities and help companies in the sector build lasting partnerships.
Scotland’s hydrogen capabilities extend across multiple sectors:
Production
Scotland has huge renewable energy resource and is one of Europe’s largest offshore renewable energy zones. This makes it a promising hub for large-scale hydrogen projects.
Electrolyser manufacturing
Scotland has a rapidly growing range of hydrogen projects, expertise and infrastructure. This creates greater need for electrolysers.
Storage, conversion and distribution
Offshore capacity will become a huge opportunity for greater investment in Scottish hydrogen.
End-user appliances
The development of innovative end-user appliances will be needed to support the transition to 100% hydrogen in the future.
Exporting
Global demand for hydrogen is expected to grow steadily over the coming decades. Scotland is in a prime position to become a top exporter.
Carbon capture, utilisation and storage
Scotland has a significant opportunity to deploy carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) due to its vast CO2 storage potential in the North Sea and the option to repurpose existing oil and gas infrastructure for CO2 transport and storage.
Scotland also has the skilled, experienced workforce and supply chain required to develop CCUS. This will help reduce carbon emissions across hard-to-abate industries, while also creating and sustaining jobs in Scotland.
Of the four CCUS clusters in the UK, Scotland has one. These clusters will contribute towards the UK Government’s target to capture and store twenty to thirty megatonnes per annum (mtpa) of CO2 by 2030.
CCUS in Scotland and across the UK will accelerate in the run up to 2030 to meet this target and will create new opportunities for the Scottish supply chain as a result.
Resources and reports
Browse our key hydrogen resources and reports, which cover hydrogen opportunities across different sectors in Scotland.
Clean heat infrastructure factsheets
To help Scottish suppliers identify specific opportunities in the hydrogen supply chain, we've also commissioned a series of factsheets that describe in detail the components required to build key pieces of hydrogen infrastructure.
The factsheets will help your company to identify which of their existing products and services could be used directly for – or adapted to fit – hydrogen technologies.
We're furthering our understanding of the wider hydrogen economy’s requirements and looking for existing capabilities in Scotland that could be useful to the sector.
The Assessment of Electrolysers report, commissioned by the Scottish Government, outlines the current state of electrolyser manufacturing globally. It details how to support the growing supply chain so that Scotland can reach its electrolyser deployment targets. We're working to make links between hydrogen project developers and Scottish companies that can offer relevant products and services.
These reports explore the potential to produce green hydrogen all across Scotland. They highlight a range of sites where land, power and water requirements make the production of green hydrogen a possibility.
This report is about about Scotland’s potential to support the use and development of synthetic/sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) – a solution that is widely regarded as the first step towards decarbonising aviation globally.
It defines the global and Scottish market opportunities for SAF and assesses the country’s strengths and appetite to engage in zero-emission aviation.
It also provides recommendations on how the Scottish and wider UK public sector can maximise the transition to net zero emissions aviation.
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