A Scottish clean energy pioneer is set for global expansion including “huge” potential expected from a new deal to supply China with hydrogen stations.
Logan Energy, based at Wallyford on the outskirts of Edinburgh, has refuelling stations across Europe including Germany, Tenerife, and the Netherlands as well in Northern Ireland and England.
However Scotland’s first public hydrogen refuelling station in the Central Belt earlier this year was financed by Logan Energy itself “in the hope that it will encourage people to consider hydrogen vehicles as viable green transport options”.
Bill Ireland, Logan Energy chief executive, says government should do more to support short and medium-term infrastructure build possibly by adopting a “carrot and stick” approach.
READ MORE: Scotland set for hydrogen-powered train and rail revolution
It could help make the most of the emerging energy now being lined up for buses, cars, planes, trains and also a ferry trial in Orkney, expected to be the first in the world of its kind.
The company has more than doubled its turnover and its staff numbers to 25 over the last two years, but growth opportunities are currently greater elsewhere in the world, he said.
He has more refuelling stations being prepared in Scotland to be installed around the globe than the five currently set up across the country.
“There is a massive opportunity and there are lots of countries around the world that have published hydrogen strategies and have committed billions to developing their hydrogen economy,” he said. “The UK and Scotland haven’t done that. I think we need the regulatory drivers. Whether it’s banning emitting vehicles from city centres, or I don’t know, Central Belt routes, along the M8, whatever it is, if you start doing that, you will start pushing the deployment of these vehicles.”
Mr Ireland said part of the problem is short-termism in business and public administration.
READ MORE: Scotland to trial world's first hydrogen-powered ferry in Orkney
“We’ve got more refuellers being built or sitting there waiting to be delivered in Wallyford than there are deployed around the rest Scotland, which is bonkers really.”
He said: “We’ve had an investment from a Chinese company. We are setting up the venture as we speak in China. We’re looking to expand there and we’re looking for investment to expand what we’re doing here, but also our market seems to be elsewhere other than Scotland.
“We are looking at expanding our Dutch operations and we are looking at expanding into Australasia as well.
“So that’s what we’re looking at and need funding to do that, but we’ve over doubled our revenue over the last two years and we’ve secured our revenue for the next year, so the next nine months is already signed up basically, and that is two and a half times what we did last year.”
READ MORE: World's first hydrogen-powered double decker in Aberdeen
He says the potential for scale in China is “huge”. The current project is a “basically to demonstrate the system, so that people can come and have a look at it in China and say, can you do one 10 times the size or 50 times the size?”. It builds on an earlier project in Levenmouth in Fife demonstrating green hydrogen as a viable medium for energy storage, grid balancing, electricity generation and transport fuel.
A new push centred on Glasgow aims to supply hydrogen to the commercial market within the next two years.
Mark Griffin, of BOC, who is a leading industry expert, hailed the partnership his firm has entered with ScottishPower and ITM Power to create new green hydrogen production facilities with clusters of refuelling stations across Scotland.
The planned new facilities will ensure zero emission fuel is available to local authorities and others with fleets of heavy duty vehicles and comes as Glasgow is to launch the world’s largest fleet of hydrogen-powered refuse trucks.
READ MORE: World’s largest zero emission hydrogen flight test in Scotland
Mr Griffin said government could boost companies seeking to deploy with early costs for wider infrastructure.
He said: “The big thing about the Glasgow project is that we want to build a template which we can then take to other cities and produce your hydrogen locally.”
A Transport Scotland spokesperson said: "In responding to the climate emergency, we are committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector. Public transport, particularly zero-emission public transport including hydrogen, has a central role to play in our journey to net-zero.
“We have invested over £11 million in hydrogen vehicles and refuelling infrastructure since 2015, and we continue to work with operators, manufacturers and energy companies towards clean, green buses for all of Scotland.
"Our Switched On Fleets initiative is also supporting hydrogen vehicles into the public sector, so that we can lead from the front in the transition to cleaner transport.
“Earlier this year, we invested £300,000 to establish a new hydrogen accelerator at the University of St Andrews. The initiative will propel innovations in hydrogen technology and help maximise the economic opportunities afforded through the shift to ultra-low emission transport solutions.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel