Page 6 - Survival Plan: Climate Emergency

6 THESTAR www.thestar.co.uk Wednesday,September18,2019
The companies that are making a difference
SOLAR SET TO HAVE ITS DAY IN THE SUN AGAIN
By David Walsh
Business Editor david.walsh@jpimedia.co.uk
The solar panel
boom of 2012 ended abruptly when the Government pulled the plug on subsidies – but the story didn’t end there.
For free electricity from sunshine remained a compelling offer to those whousealotofit.
Custom Solar in Chesterfield is installing bigger and bigger systems for companies with huge roofs, such as Associated British Ports which runs 21 ports in the UK.
At Immingham on the Humber it fitted 15,900 panels on ABP’s huge warehouses, saving 1,914 tonnes of CO2 a year. They power cranes, conveyors, lock gates and offices, with a small amount exported to the national grid.
Separately, the company is about to start work on a 22,500 panel system and is in the planning stages of a 13 megawatt system of 45,000 panels.
‘Solar, wind and batteries underpin the industrial revolution we are going through. The endgame is solar everywhere, including on houses’
Boss Matthew Brailsford said some existing set-
ups were providing firms with 100 per cent of their electricity in summer.
But saving money wasn’t the main driver. Reducing carbon emissions and energy security, as demand for electricity soars, were now key.
He added: “If you have
an electric fleet it doesn’t make sense not to generate your own power. Solar, wind and batteries underpin the
Custom Solar has fitted thousands of solar panels on warehouses at the Port of Immingham; Matt Brailsford, Custom Solar, inset
A Sheffield company is aiming to manufacture enough hydrogen-producing equipment every year to power 700,000 homes.
ITM Power, working with Ørsted and Element Energy, will research how to make bigger electrolyser systems, and make them faster, to reach one gigawatt – 1bn watts – of manufacturing capacity annually.
The project is funded by the Government to accelerate the production of bulk, low-cost, zero- carbon hydrogen and make it more viable for the UK’s energy system and for decarbonising industry.
ITM Power makes
equipment that runs electricity through water
to produce hydrogen gas which can be stored in tanks, pumped into the domestic gas grid or used in hydrogen cars.
If it is powered with renewable energy – such as solar or wind – the process is carbon-free, producing no greenhouse gases and no soot.
ITM Power chief executive Graham Cooley said: “The Gigastack project seeks to significantly lower the cost of producing green hydrogen by scaling the individual electrolyser stacks to 5MW and the production process to 1GW
of electrolysis capacity annually.”
One gigawatt of electricity can power about 700,000 homes.
Ørsted is the largest supplier of offshore wind in the UK.
ITM Power is set to move all its operations to a new factory in Sheffield where it says it will have the largest electrolyser manufacturing capacity in the world, some 1GW per annum.
The company, which employs 200, will close its two sites in Atlas, Sheffield, and on Sheffield Business Park.
The firm also has offices in Australia, Germany, France, the USA and Canada.
Graham Cooley, chief executive at ITM Power.
industrial revolution we are going through. The endgame is solar everywhere,
including on houses.
“It’s a good thing. When
we at Custom Solar are done
we’ll know we have changed things, we played our part.” The 40-strong company
has just bought another building with room for 40 staff.
Hydrogen instead of carbon
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
The University of Sheffield