Scotland is planning to export green hydrogen to Germany and could become one of the EU nation’s biggest energy suppliers, Energy Secretary Gillian Martin has said.
On a trip to Germany, she told journalists of the SNP government’s ambition to export liquid hydrogen to Europe amid the loss of Russian gas supplies since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. This will initially be transported by ship – then later via a proposed new pipeline it’s hoped could travel from Scotland via England to Lower Saxony, Germany.
Martin insisted the £2.6billion pipeline, if built, could help provide a third of German energy needs by 2030. With renewable energy like wind power booming in Scotland, the Energy Secretary said the nation’s “surplus” electricity will then be used to produce the green fuel.
Green hydrogen involves producing the fuel via renewable electricity – considered more climate-friendly than other methods of producing hydrogen which use natural gas – but the technology is still being developed. The Scottish Government’s draft Energy Strategy, published in 2023, sets out plans for hydrogen to provide the equivalent of 15 per cent of Scotland’s energy needs by 2030.
It’s hoped the fuel can help in the net zero fight by powering transport, heating homes and replacing fossil fuels in industries like steel manufacturing.
Speaking on a trade visit to Germany last week, Martin said: “We will generate more electricity than we can use. We will use the surplus electricity to produce green hydrogen – and we can supply it to Germany.”
In the most recent year of data, 2022, Scotland generated the equivalent of 113 per cent of its electricity consumption from renewable sources.
Martin added: “The hydrogen will initially be transported by ship. We are hoping for a pipeline that runs from Scotland through northern England to Germany.”
The end point of the pipeline would be Emden, Lower Saxony, which is in northwest Germany. A study commissioned by Aberdeen’s Net Zero Technology Centre estimated the pipeline would cost around £2.6billion to build – with investment from other nations is needed.
Martin raised the prospect of help from the UK Labour government amid Keir Starmer’s push for a clean power energy grid by 2030. The Nats energy minister added: “A pipeline costs a lot of money.
“No country can manage that alone But we are now more confident than in recent years that progress will be made
“Everything is there. We need the political will to act.”
It comes as Germany has suffered economically from the loss of gas supplies from Russia since the war in Ukraine began. Over the weekend, Poland’s president Andrzej Duda urged German leaders to never again rely on Vladimir Putin’s regime for energy and to “dismantle” the Nord Stream gas pipelines from Russia, which haven’t been used since 2022.
To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, click here