The Scottish have gotten onboard with hydrogen by rolling out the UK’s first and only road legal hydrogen car, the siGEN from the PURE (Promoting Unst’s Renewable Energy) agency. The hydrogen car was on display in Edinburgh to promote innovation and renewable energy.
Hydrogen itself is no stranger to the Scotts. There are currently plans in place to build a hydrogen-powered electricity generation plant in Scotland that will be able to power up to 250,000 homes. The hydrogen plant will reform natural gas to produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide will then be pumped into depleted offshore oil fields.
PURE also has a wind farm project on the Shetland island of Unst, which is using wind turbines to electrolyze water into hydrogen. The hydrogen then can be exported to be used either to convert back to electricity or used for fuel for hydrogen cars. Because the island has an excess of wind and rain, it is the ideal location to take advantage of its renewable energy resources.
Leave it to those fiery Scots to turn wind and rain into something we can all use more of, hydrogen.