BP and Aberdeen City Council have signed a joint venture agreement to develop a city hydrogen hub, targeting production from 2024.

The joint venture will deliver a scalable green hydrogen production, storage and distribution facility in the city powered by renewable energy

Developed in response to growing demand for the fuel, the project will see BP design, build and operate the hub to incorporate solar power, green hydrogen production and a refuelling facility for transport.

The joint venture will also support supply chain development and hydrogen skills and training.

An initial £3m investment is being made to fund the design work and the project is being developed in three phases.

Phase one, which involves delivery of a green hydrogen production and transport refuelling facility powered by a solar farm, is targeting first production from 2024, delivering over 800 kilograms of green hydrogen per day. That’s enough to fuel 25 buses and a similar number of other fleet vehicles; the council already runs a fleet of 25 hydrogen buses, 60 public sector vehicles and waste trucks.

Future phases could see production scaled up through further investment to supply larger volumes of green hydrogen for rail, freight and marine, as well as supply of hydrogen for heat and potentially export.

A study commissioned by Aberdeen City Council on the growth in demand for hydrogen power estimates that if the hydrogen hub enables the export of renewable hydrogen, then up to 700 skilled jobs could be created in the hydrogen industry by 2030.

Aberdeen City Council Leader Councillor Jenny Laing said: “Today is a milestone in delivery of our hydrogen programme. We are now seeing the benefits of having our 2015 Hydrogen Plan in place that provided a clear statement on the scale of our ambition to deploy hydrogen power in Aberdeen.

“We were ahead of the game then, and it is impressive that seven years on, we have a developing hydrogen economy with 85 hydrogen-powered vehicles deployed across the city, refuelling infrastructure, and a joint venture company with bp to deliver the hydrogen production and distribution hub.

“That next phase will see scale production of green hydrogen in response to growing demand and maintains Aberdeen’s place at the forefront of the UK and Scotland’s transition to renewable energy.”

The project is part of BP’s work to partner with cities and corporates in the journey to net zero. It expects to partner with 10-15 cities globally by 2030 to provide integrated ‎and decarbonised energy solutions at scale to help them achieve their goals of net zero emissions.

Louise Kingham, BP’s UK head of country and senior vice president for Europe, said: “BP is investing across all the energy transition growth areas in the UK. In fact, we have committed to spend £2 in the UK for every £1 generated here out to the middle of this decade.

“Today’s announcement is evidence of that commitment in action and is supported by other ambitious plans to produce clean energy from UK offshore wind, develop carbon capture in Teesside and grow the country’s electric vehicle charging network.”