Planning for Hydrogen Projects in the UK
Introduction
As more hydrogen projects progress through development stages we are beginning to see a significant number make it to their local planning authorities seeking planning permission.
This is a challenging step for any project, particularly for novel projects which many local planning authorities are not familiar with and will not have seen before. Clean Carbon Consultants has developed the “UK Hydrogen Project Planning Database” to support project developers and local planning authorities with this step.
The database tracks projects in the UK which have made formal planning applications and provides key details on location, capacity, planning authority and project developer. This can also be seen summarised at a planning authority level showing typical determination periods and whether a planning authority has seen similar applications before.
The full interactive dashboard is available here.
The availability of this data allows for the first time a detailed analysis of the experience faced by project developers progressing Hydrogen project in the UK.
Insights
Across the UK 51 planning applications have been submitted for hydrogen production projects, these have been made to 37 different planning authorities with even relatively experienced councils having received at most 4 applications.
Cheshire West & Chester Council - 4
Orkney Islands Council - 4
Aberdeen City Council - 3
Bassetlaw Council - 2
Doncaster Council -2
Fife Council - 2
Perth & Kinross Council - 2
Trafford Council - 2
Argyll & Bute Council - 2
Planning approval has been granted to 37 projects with an average determination period of ~6 months (178 days), this can often be critical path for projects and in 65% of cases assessed the statutory approval period of 3-4 month was not met. We are seeing a significant range on the approval timeline, likely due to the novel nature of the projects.
While the approved projects took longer than desirable, there are 12 projects which are currently waiting on planing permission, these have been under review on average for ~20 months (600 days). Whitelees Green Hydrogen project - Scottish Power takes the record for the longest of these with the planning application initially submitted in April 2021, over 3 years ago.
Combined these projects would deliver over 1.25GW of production capacity.
Project Focus - Whitelees Green Hydrogen Project, Scottish Power
An initial application was made to their local planning authority for the green hydrogen project in April of 2021, a separate application was submitted at the same time to the Scottish Governments Energy Consents Unit under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989. This second application was for a combined solar and BESS scheme with a proposed capacity of 70MW (over the 50MW threshold for S36).
In August 2022 Scottish Ministers decided to require the original hydrogen project planning application to be referred to them for determination as:
“…they consider the proposed development raises nationally significant issues with regard to policy on hydrogen and net zero. In addition, call in will allow Scottish Ministers to consider the proposed development alongside a proposed solar photovoltaic farm and battery energy storage system which is the subject of a separate application for Section 36 consent under the Electricity Act 1989..”
This now combined application is still with the Energy Consents Unit.
There is approximately 150MW of hydrogen production capacity that has received planning permission but which as far the author knows has not yet started construction. These approved planning permissions have been sitting on average for ~1.7 years some of which are coming close to their expiration dates.
Their may be an opportunity for active project developers to explore opportunities to get involved in these projects and breathe new life into them while taking advantage of the planning permission already granted.
To date the largest project to have been granted planning permission is 35MW (Barrow Green Hydrogen Hub - Carlton Power), significantly larger projects have applied but are still waiting on permission being granted.
Conclusions
Planning in the UK is still a very challenging landscape for project developers, most planning authorities have no experience in reviewing applications of this type. While there are various efforts ongoing by various enterprise and development agencies to provide education and support to planning departments, the determination periods do not appear to be shrinking to anything reasonable.
With UK ambitions for 10GW of capacity by 2030 the timing for planning approval appears to be a major hurdle that is yet to be overcome.
“There is ~0.16GW of capacity approved, ~1.25GW waiting on approval and another 8.59 GW that would need approving in the next 6 years to meet UK targets.”
The full interactive dashboard is available here.
Let us know what further information you would find valuable and get in touch for further detail on specific projects or bespoke analysis.