Bacton Energy Hub: Business Opportunity

There is an opportunity for a Bacton hydrogen production hub to be quickly established providing significant contribution to UK Government targets for both hydrogen production and CO2 capture by 2030.

Demand

Significant potental hydrogen demand exists that BEH can ready supply through exising pipeline infrastructure.

Hydrogen demand potential that could be supple by BEH is not considered fo be the limiting factor.

Supply

There is sufficient remaining indigenous hydrocarbons to support the BEH Core Project.

Electrolytic Hydrogen would require a dedicated renewable energy source from offshore wind.

Storage

Material CO2, storage capacity exists in the SNS, which i further supported by NSTA's recent CCS cence round.

The Core Project requires relatively limited hydrogen storage, but a bud out scenario will require offshore storage in a depleted oi and gas reservoir or aquifer

Infrastructure

The existing Bacton terminal could be optimised to support the Core Project.

Trunkines to shore represent the best opportunity for repurposing existing infrastructure.

Regulatory

Regulatory regime requires minimal updates to accommodate hydrogen, but this is common to all UK hydrogen projects.

Technology

A high level of technology maturity exists within CCS enabled hydrogen production. Electrolytic Hydrogen technology is still relatively immature but is scaling up to a Commercial scale. BEH coud benef fom an early grid connection to allow supply of electrolytic hydogen to a large market

Supply chain

There are potential supply chain constraints at a UK level, but there is an opportunity for the BEH to support jobs and skills within the East Anglia region.

Project Economics

BEH project economics are competitive against BEIS Hydrogen production cost estimates.

Bankability

An initial bankabilty assessment indicated that no red flags were identiied, and the BEH has the potential to raise project finance in the future, depending on the final commercial structure, and the technical and other features of the project and the potential of the BEH.

Schedule

In a Base Case scenario, hydrogen production from BEH could be realised by 2030. This requires a consortium to be formed in frst haf of 2023 vith FID achieved in 2025.