As part of its €200 million investment in a remote site in north east Mayo, Mercury Renewables, an Irish and UK-based renewable energy company, plans to build a wind farm and hydrogen electrolyser.
In Firlough, Green Hydrogen will be produced through electrolysis using renewable energy provided by the on-site wind farm to split the water into hydrogen and oxygen without any emissions or by-products.
Mercury Renewables has finished a six-month feasibility study with DCU and MaREI to assess the usage of Green Hydrogen in transportation.
A consortium of public and private entities will be formed by Mercury to develop a hydrogen transport ecosystem in Ireland, with the county of Mayo at the center.
The Firlough facility will generate enough green hydrogen to meet the demands of 1,000 fuel cell heavy goods trucks on a continuous basis.
“We see huge possibilities for this project to attract industry and inward investment to the nearby towns and businesses,” said Mercury Renewables CEO John Duffy.
“Our focus is on decarbonising the transportation sector, however, Green Hydrogen can also be used to provide baseload renewable energy when the wind isn’t blowing.”
Company is predicting that the entire project will be finished by early 2025.
“We see the hydrogen electrolyser as providing the people of Co. Mayo with the prospect of obtaining skills in an industry that is expected to see significant growth across the globe,” said Mr Duffy.
“We have an opportunity to build a regional centre of excellence around the technical skills required to install and operate a Green Hydrogen electrolyser directly connected to a wind farm.”
When water is electrically charged, hydrogen gas is produced, which separates from oxygen, the other component of water.
Since it mostly produces water vapour when burned as fuel, using it drastically reduces greenhouse gas emissions from transport.
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