Good practice:

North East Scotland Hydrogen Ambition

Aberdeen City Council helped to establish the North East Hydrogen Ambition Steering Committee. The aim of the Steering Committee is to bring together a coalition of stakeholders from both private and public sector organisations in North East Scotland who are actively working on hydrogen projects and therefore have key insights into the region’s hydrogen economy potential.
The Committee has come together to promote coordinated action on the region’s hydrogen opportunity and is looking to ensure that the strong catalogue of planned hydrogen projects becomes a reality. It comprises an independent chair, and its members include senior individuals from ACC, Energy Transition Zone Ltd, Storegga, Hydrasun, Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group, Net Zero Technology Centre, North East Scotland College, Scottish Enterprise (Scotland’s national economic development agency) and Scottish Gas Network.
The Committee has created a Hydrogen Ambition Narrative for the region. The Narrative promotes the vision of the North East as a leader of low carbon hydrogen production, distribution and use. It notes the current portfolio of hydrogen projects in the region and the potential of jobs and skills development that hydrogen presents.
The Committee will contribute toward the update of Aberdeen’s Hydrogen Strategy. Parts of the document such as the region’s hydrogen demand and skills development will be incorporated into the Hydrogen Strategy.

A workshop was hosted by Scottish Enterprise (Scotland’s national economic development agency) to ascertain whether coordinated and collaborative approach to hydrogen delivery in the region will be beneficial. Thereafter attendees were invited to apply to be part of the Steering Committee.

The practice demonstrates local and regional organisations in the public and private sector working together towards the development of a hydrogen economy. The Committee has drafted a Hydrogen Ambition Narrative which brings together a portfolio of current and future hydrogen projects and looks at growing the supply chain, engage the community and skills development. This document was presented at the COP26 conference in Glasgow during Scottish Government’s ‘Scotland's Climate Ambition Zone’.

One of the main challenges has been to ensure that the Steering Committee represents various skills including people working in skills development, gas networks, technology and finance.

This good practice can be transferred to other regions. It shows the potential of collaboration between public and private sector organisations who are working in the hydrogen field. A key benefit of having key stakeholders coming together regularly is the opportunities it presents for greater learning and understanding of hydrogen technology for everyone involved and their home organisations.
As a result of the Committee the region now has a jointly created Hydrogen Ambition Narrative which has brought greater publicity to the Aberdeen city region’s current hydrogen portfolio as well as the potential of the hydrogen economy in the future.