Black Veatch has completed execution of a front-end engineering design (FEED) study for the Whitelee Green Hydrogen Project, a proposed development by owner ScottishPower Energy Retail Limited. The contract was awarded to Black Veatch in October of 2024.
The first phase of the plan, located 15 miles south of Glasgow, was awarded via U.K. government funding support as part of its Hydrogen Allocation Round 1 (HAR1) process. The project will produce green hydrogen via a power supply connection to the U.K.'s largest onshore windfarm, Whitelee Windfarm, creating a valuable renewable fuel with zero carbon emissions.
Green hydrogen effectively provides a resilient fuel source by using electricity from renewable sources, such as wind, and converting it using an electrolyser -a device that uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis. Green hydrogen then operates as a transportable and fungible fuel, ensuring low to no carbon emissions in the process.
As the U.K. government shortlists new green hydrogen projects for funding as part of its Hydrogen Allocation Round (HAR2), Black Veatch continues to work with clients using the company's power generation and lower carbon expertise to plan, design and build green hydrogen plants. Black Veatch has recently completed more than 200 front-end loading (FEL) studies globally with 245MW of green hydrogen projects completed or under construction.
"ScottishPower develops green hydrogen responsibly and we selected Black Veatch because of their decades of experience in hydrogen and strong commitment to safety," said Mark Bradley, Hydrogen Director, ScottishPower Green Hydrogen Limited. "We take a holistic development approach, consulting with local stakeholders to ensure we are able to successfully develop low carbon sources of energy for our customers."
The multi-disciplinary engineering team from Black Veatch delivered a design with safety at the forefront and leveraged the internal experience of constructing and commissioning hydrogen production facilities in other regions. The FEED study includes the incorporation of the OEM's electrolyser package design, as well as the design of all balance of plant scope including hydrogen compression and a tube-trailer dispensing station. The first phase of this project covers 10MW of proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis, and the conceptual design from Black Veatch includes a second phase that incorporates an additional 10MW in electrolysis capacity. The second phase has been shortlisted for the U.K. government's HAR2 process.
Black Veatch is also the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) provider for Advanced Clean Energy Storage I (ACES I), a green hydrogen hub in Utah in the United States, and is considered a leading global innovator in the design and engineering of first of a kind, at-scale green hydrogen plants.
"Our clients entrust us to help engineer and deploy innovative, bankable green hydrogen energy infrastructure to transition them to lower carbon solutions," said Youssef Merjaneh, senior vice president and managing director, Europe Middle East and Africa, Black Veatch. "This innovative project will produce green hydrogen from adjacent onshore wind as part of the U.K. government's HAR funding program, and we look forward to continued collaboration with the ScottishPower team."
For more information on the company's hydrogen and ammonia experience, visit www.bv.com/hydrogen.
About Black Veatch
Black Veatch is a 100-percent employee-owned global engineering, procurement, consulting and construction company with more than 100-years of innovation in sustainable infrastructure. Since 1915, we have helped our clients improve the lives of people around the world by addressing the resilience and reliability of our most important infrastructure and energy assets. Follow us on www.bv.com and on LinkedIn, Facebook, X (Twitter) and Instagram.
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