Project Project financed by the European Community
Project requirement “off-grid” energy production and storage
Type and volume Orcadi Islands Territory
Specifications:
BIG HIT will create a hydrogen territory in the Orkney Islands of Scotland by implementing a fully integrated model of hydrogen production, storage, transportation and utilization for heat, power and mobility.
Twelve partners from Denmark, France, Italy, Malta, Spain and the UK are participating in this collaborative project.
BIG HIT will demonstrate the Orkney Islands of Scotland as a replicable Hydrogen Territory, using curtailed renewable energy generated locally to produce hydrogen (by two big electrolysers) which can then be used as a clean energy vector to store and use valuable energy for local applications.
BIG HIT will demonstrate use of hydrogen as a flexible local energy store and vector, transporting hydrogen by tube trailer to the Orkney mainland. Here it will be used to demonstrate real end-use applications for hydrogen including auxiliary power and heat for ferries in Kirkwall harbour, fuelling a fleet of hydrogen range-extended light vehicles, and heating for buildings in the Kirkwall area. Twelve Giacomini hydrogen boilers will be installed for heating two school buildings.
The learning from BIG HIT about the benefits of using hydrogen with renewable energy sources in the Orkney Islands will support the much wider replication and further deployments of renewable energy with fuel cell & hydrogen technologies in isolated or constrained territories.
BIG HIT creates a hydrogen-fueled territory on the Orcadi Islands of Scotland by implementing a fully-integrated model for the production, storage, transportation and use of hydrogen for heating, electric energy production and mobility.
Twelve partners from Denmark, France, Italy, Malta, Spain and UK take part to this collaboration project.
BIG HIT will make the Orcadi Islands of Scotland a replicable model for the use of hydrogen by exploiting the renewable energy generated on site for its production by means of two big electrolyzers. It will show how hydrogen is used as a flexible energy vessel by storing and transporting with trailers the quantity produced on the main island. Here it will be used to prove its actual
applications, among which the production of electric energy and heat for the ferries in the harbor of Kirkwall, fueling a fleet of long-distance light vehicles, and heating the buildings in the Kirkwall area. Here twelve Giacomini hydrogen-fueled boilers will be installed to heat two school buildings.
The knowledge acquired by BIG HIT on the benefits of using hydrogen with renewable energy sources in the Orcadi Islands will enhance replication of the model and additional implementations of renewable energies - with the fuel cell- and hydrogen-based technologies - in isolated or bound territories.
From the first bulky 6-burner prototypes, in time we have perfectioned our technology, planning single-burner models that were more compact, efficient, and safe, up to the current H₂ydroGEM with its enhanced functions and design: it weighs only 40 kg and features a nominal thermal power of 5 kW.
Hydrogen systems
