Chamber and committees

We are working with Scotland’s Enterprise Agencies to develop the Hydrogen Sector Export Plan and this will be informed by the findings of commissioned reports on identifying priority international markets for Scottish companies to target and assesses demand for hydrogen and hydrogen products in North West Europe. We are also supporting Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC) work on the Hydrogen Backbone Link project seeking to establish the case for a hydrogen export pipeline from Scotland to mainland Europe.

We have supported several trade delegations including to Dubai Expo and, in January this year, Hyvolution in France, to which it is planned to return next year. We have supported visit programmes of several inward delegations, including from India, Singapore and German States.

Scottish Development International (SDI) has taken a strategic and targeted approach to attracting direct foreign investment to Scotland. It is focused on attracting hydrogen producers, supply chain companies and end users. Our hydrogen opportunity is being promoted internationally by SDI’s overseas offices and by relevant UK Government departments. This has catalysed visits to Scotland by companies, innovation partnerships with universities, a strong project concept pipeline and initial investments.

We are engaging and supporting companies throughout Scotland that are already undertaking or are interested in hydrogen opportunities, as well as others with potentially transferrable skills and currently not active in the sector to raise awareness of potential opportunity areas. Scotland’s Enterprise Agencies are capturing companies’ capabilities and compiling a soon to be publicly available online database to provide a useful tool for supply chain, project developers and investors keen to understand and work with Scotland’s hydrogen supply chain.

Scottish Enterprise recently ran a year-long Hydrogen Expert Support programme in which 33 Scottish companies participated, including manufacturers, technology developers or technical service providers seeking to diversify into or grow in the hydrogen sector. Scottish Enterprise funded workshops with an expert consultancy which provided each company with a tailored report giving them information on the sector and recommendations on what steps they could take to get involved based on their capabilities and ambitions.

The Scottish Government and Scotland’s Enterprise Agencies are also working with partners and stakeholders such as NECCUS and the Scottish Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Association to further the development of a hydrogen economy cluster for Scotland.

The Hydrogen Sector Export Plan will consider the short-term export opportunities around skills and the supply chain, as well as the economic opportunity for Scotland represented by the export of renewable hydrogen in the longer term.

To support the development of the Hydrogen Sector Export Plan, the Scottish Government have commissioned research to investigate low-carbon hydrogen demand scenarios in North-West European regions and sectors up to 2045.

This work will sit alongside research being conducted on the economic competitiveness of hydrogen in various sectors and end-uses, such as for aviation transport or for refineries, to establish the most likely off-taker markets for hydrogen and the current best estimates for the likely size of these markets.

Research has also been commissioned to map the key markets and opportunities for Scottish hydrogen supply chain goods and services. Together, this research will provide a robust evidence base demonstrating economic opportunity for hydrogen in Europe according to current available data.

The Hydrogen Sector Export Plan will be published later this year alongside a suite of research, including the North Sea Hydrogen Alliance project conducted by NZTC in partnership with Cruh21 which will match Scottish hydrogen production with German demand.

The Taskforce is making good progress with the development of its recommended actions and will continue to work until members have agreed a comprehensive action plan. We anticipate the publication of a report later in 2024.

The Scottish Government publishes the agreed minutes and actions from each meeting on its website: www.gov.scot/groups/nursing-and-midwifery-taskforce/

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

These include working with the Energy Skills Partnership (ESP) on the Hydrogen Skills Project (HSP). HSP Automotive and Hydrogen Training Networks now have access to cutting edge hydrogen fuel cell technology learning resources. The networks have conducted learning and development activities across Scotland, showcasing their capabilities at the annual All-Energy Conferences in Glasgow.

Support from Transport Scotland enabled the ESP to acquire a hydrogen fuel cell trainer , a hybrid hydrogen energy lab system and related kit to be sited at Dundee’s Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc (MSIP) skills academy. Available to colleges within the HSP training network, this is part of a larger plan to have a range of training equipment at MSIP to help support hydrogen skills within Scotland.

The ESP has also worked with Aberdeen City Council , H2 Aberdeen , H2 Accelerator , HyTrEc2 and SMART-HY-AWARE to produce an accessible Hydrogen for Transport Course aimed at those joining a hydrogen transport industry, including school and college students. In the maritime sector, the University of Highlands and Islands Orkney took their first cohort of seafarers to be trained to work on hydrogen powered vessels in 2021.

To support our hydrogen ambitions, the Scottish Government have commissioned consultants to produce comprehensive guidance for hydrogen consenting across onshore and offshore regimes. The purpose of the guidance, which is expected to be published in 2024, is primarily to support developers navigating our planning and consenting systems to advance projects to delivery, but may also be a useful reference point for planners in local planning areas.

We have also commissioned academic expertise to design a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) course as an ‘Introduction to Hydrogen’ offered free of charge to all local planning authorities in Scotland. This action aims to increase the knowledge and encourage knowledge sharing within local planning authorities dealing with the consenting of planning applications for hydrogen production. The CPD course will be led by Edinburgh University and available in Summer 2024, initially for local planning professionals. The course modules will then be made freely available to the wider public sector to raise awareness of the technologies involved and the role of hydrogen in the energy mix.

Transport Scotland has contracted Heriot-Watt University to work with road haulage fleets and stakeholders to assess where initial enroute charging and refuelling infrastructure for zero emission HGVs will be needed.

The Zero Emission Truck Taskforce, convened by Transport Scotland, includes a working group focused on hydrogen refuelling infrastructure; this included hydrogen truck manufacturers and fleets interested in hydrogen trucks.