By Neil Mackay
A NEW blueprint has been drawn up to turn Scotland into a global powerhouse
for green energy – a move which economists and scientists say would be
transformative when it comes to the wealth and standing of the nation.
The study lays the ground for Scotland to take full advantage of the
hydrogen revolution. Renewable hydrogen would not only satisfy all our
domestic energy needs, but it could also be exported. Until now it’s been
impossible to properly store and export green energy.
The Scottish economist and scientist who head up the new HIAlba-Idea think
tank say Scotland could effectively fuel the proposed European supergrid,
and generate so much money for the economy that the nation could establish
a Sovereign Wealth Fund, as Norway did with North Sea oil. The UK failed to
set up such a fund.
HIAlba-Idea, the first think tank based in the Highlands, is run by the
economist Professor Ronald MacDonald, and the mathematician, scientist and
engineer Dr Donald MacRae. MacDonald is professor of macroeconomics at
Glasgow University’s Adam Smith Business School. He has been a consultant
adviser to the European Central Bank, the European Commission, the World
Bank, the IMF and the UK National Audit Office. MacRae has held
under-secretary positions in the Australian government and was a director
with Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organisation (CSIRO).
MacRae’s work with CSIRO is key to the blueprints which the think tank is
releasing tomorrow – called Hydrogen Scotland: A Route to Export Powerhouse
and Maximising Scotland’s Wellbeing While Bravely Innovating. Australia has
started to use solar power to develop renewable hydrogen.
Hydrogen can be produced using solar, wave or wind power, and can then be
used as a cheap, clean, plentiful energy source, and exported for the first
time. Some have described the process as bottling sunshine and wind.
The new technology is being hailed as the solution to many of the West’s
environmental, economic and social problems. MacDonald says the energy
revolution would solve the “tail-off in productivity of the Scottish and UK
economy”, which came about with the shift from manufacturing to services.
Renewable hydrogen is “the big transformative idea”, he says, which would
“take us back to being a manufacturing economy and an export power house”.
He added: “The revolution is having this cheap, storable and transportable
energy.” MacRae called it “a game-changer”.
MacDonald believes renewable hydrogen could lead to a “Highland
renaissance” as many of the wind farms needed to create the new energy
source would be located in the most rural parts of the country.
Renewable hydrogen “could easily equal the whole production of North Sea
oil in terms of its potential benefits to the UK and Scotland”, said
MacDonald. “We could set up a Sovereign Wealth Fund as the Norwegians have
done.”
While Scotland – and Orkney in particular – are making good progress with
the technology, Australia has already created a “roadmap” for commercial
use of renewable hydrogen. South Korea plans to convert its 26,000-strong
fleet of buses to hydrogen, and Australia is eyeing the market for exports.
Japan is also moving toward the use of more hydrogen vehicles.
HIAlba-Idea is calling on the Holyrood Government and the big players in
the oil industry, who want to move away from carbons to green energy, to
work with them to create a Scottish roadmap. Norway is also starting to
explore the exploitation of renewable hydrogen.
With Europe “desperate for energy independence”, says MacRae, Scotland
would be well placed to export renewable hydrogen to the continent.
MacDonald said: “Clearly, a Europe self-sufficient in green energy would
have implications that go beyond decarbonisation, including that of its
security, since it would no longer need to be reliant on potentially
hostile countries for its energy supplies.”
MacRae added: “You can imagine an energy-independent Europe, through power
generated by Scotland going into a supergrid.”
He proposes storing green energy – it would be kept as ammonia, from which
the hydrogen is extracted – on decommissioned North Sea oil rigs among
forests of floating wind farms.
MacDonald and MacRae say that if the new industry is handled properly by
the Government, Scotland could also become a centre for manufacturing and
exporting the equipment and technology associated with renewable hydrogen,
as well as a global hub for the financial services needed to fund it.
“For Scotland,” said MacRae, “it has the potential to be a very significant
game-changer. In fact, there are so many innovations that spin off it that
we are actually looking at it as a whole portfolio of opportunities. For
Scotland, we are talking about something of immense significance.”
MacDonald added: “The exciting part is the transformative effect on society
and the economy. This is a breakthrough which could transcend anything else
we are doing, that’s how important it is.”
He added that the impact on global warming would be “enormous”. “Scotland
on its own being completely carbon-free would probably make some impact,
but it would be quite small. But if the supergrid became a reality then
that in itself could be revolutionary. This could be the pathway to making
the whole of Europe green.” He feels it would not be long before green
supergrids spread across the globe.
If Scotland took a lead in renewable hydrogen, the global clout that came
with that would be “phenomenal”.
The HIAlba-Idea vision is that Scotland becomes one of the largest global
energy exporters in the world … through the low-cost extraction of
hydrogen from renewably generated ammonia used as a storage medium and
carrier of hydrogen.
The think tank says: “Offshore ammonia production on disused oil rigs
serving offshore wind farms could be stored for periods of low wind. In
this way, the continuous production of renewable electricity is guaranteed”.
In its “2050 vision for energy”, the Scottish Government did look at the
role of hydrogen in the national energy mix. “However, it neither envisions
it as a major export industry nor considers the role of renewable ammonia
in achieving this outcome,” it notes.
The renewable energy entrepreneur Eddie O’Connor is advocating a single
European energy market connected by a supergrid. “An interconnected energy
market based on renewable energy linked by a supergrid will deliver cheap
power to consumers and enable us all to meet our climate goals,” he said.
KELP, HEMP AND PLASTIC-EATING SHIPS: THE OTHER BIG IDEAS
FOR THE SCOTTISH ECONOMY IN THE 21ST CENTURY
A GREEN energy revolution is just the biggest idea on the table when it
comes to the future of the Scottish economy.
Professor Ronald MacDonald and his colleague Dr Donald MacRae have some
other revolutionary plans, including autonomous self-fuelled ships. These
would clean up plastic in the oceans and turn the waste into a biofuel
produced onboard. This would power the ships 24-7 and be pollution free.
Seaweed could also be the crop of the future, with a growing market in the
world for kelp, including vegan foods, beer, healthcare products,
eco-friendly packaging and cosmetics.
The use of off-shore rigs for the production of renewable hydrogen could
also stimulate the seaweed industry. HIAlba-Idea suggests ‘operating
large-scale seaweed harvesting operations in conjunction with disused oil
rigs and associated offshore wind farms established for offshore ammonia
production’.
‘Steel cables strung between wind turbine mountings and disused oil rigs
[could] provide an ideal seaweed growing and harvesting zone.’
With crofts working to run wind farms and the renewable hydrogen sector,
farms would have the money to use ‘drones and robotised farming practices’.
Hemp – now seen as a superfood – could be grown on crofts and sold globally
as hemp oil, hemp chocolate and hemp milk.
If rural areas are able to grow in wealth, the University of the Highlands
and Islands could establish mini-campuses in burgeoning communities –
increasing the population and economy.
1 Comment
Dick Winchester · March 24, 2019 at 11:16 am
“While Scotland – and Orkney in particular – are making good progress with
the technology”… Not true. All the technology is imported. We’re not manufacturing any of it.