Essar Energy Transition (EET) has announced the launch of EET Hydrogen Power, Europe’s first hydrogen-ready combined heat and power (CHP) plant. It will be built at the Stanlow refinery in the UK and is aiming to complete construction by 2027.

To be developed over two phases, the CHP plant will reach a capacity of 125 MW of power with 6,000 tonnes of steam/day, with the hydrogen replacing hydrocarbons to deliver a reduction of 740ktCO2/y.  The new plant will replace Stanlow’s existing boiler units, which currently generate approximately 50MW of power for the refinery operations.  The plant is integral to the decarbonisation of operations at Stanlow refinery, which plans to cut total emissions by 95% by 2030 to become the world’s lowest carbon refinery.

EET Hydrogen Power is a key infrastructure project, supporting the decarbonisation plans of the wider HyNet industrial cluster as well as forming a blueprint for future industrial and power decarbonisation. 

The investment into building Europe’s first hydrogen ready power plant is a key part of EET’s overall $3.0 billion of energy transition initiatives in the North West of England.

EET, is actually a rebranding of Vertex Hydrogen, the Essar company reported in a previous IFRF blog-post, and includes:

•         EET Hydrogen Power
•         EET Fuels- the owner of the Stanlow Refinery
•         EET Hydrogen- developing 1.35+ GW’s of blue and green hydrogen capacity for the UK market, with follow-on capacity ambition of 4GW
•         Stanlow Terminals Ltd, the UK’s largest independent bulk liquid storage terminal, which is developing enabling transport and storage infrastructure for biofuels and new energies

Rob Wallace, Chief Executive Officer of EET Hydrogen Power, commented:

“We have bold ambitions for Stanlow to become a low carbon transition hub at the centre of the HyNet Industrial Cluster.  EET Hydrogen Power will be Europe’s first 100% hydrogen-ready gas-turbine plant which will be supplied with EET Hydrogen’s low carbon hydrogen. This project will create significant benefit by contributing to regional emissions reductions targets.”