9 May 2006
PROMOTING UNST’S RENEWABLE ENERGY (PURE)
REALITY AND VISION
The latest news from project director, Sandy Macaulay
The PURE Project demonstrates an off-grid stand-alone system, which allows wind
generated electricity to convert water into hydrogen. The hydrogen is then bottled and
kept for converting back into electricity as and when required - producing water as the
only waste product from the entire process. The cycle can then be repeated. The PURE
Project has shown that such renewable infrastructures offer unique opportunities for
communities to achieve energy security by satisfying their own local energy needs from
local energy production and thereby tying energy consumers into the necessity of living
within their energy means. The PURE Energy Centre on Unst is now committed to turning
its broader vision into a reality, and will use all its resources and future income in pursuit
of this objective.
PURE Reality
The PURE Project was conceived by a young Shetland engineering graduate, Ross
Gazey. Ross believed that it would provide him, and others from remote communities in
the Highlands & Islands, with new technical skills and the knowledge required to start new
businesses, create employment, and deliver secure sustainable energy. In May 2005, the
PURE Project located on the most northerly Shetland Island of Unst, was inaugurated as
the first off-grid renewable hydrogen system in Europe and the first community owned
hydrogen production plant in the world. The PURE system offers a practical operational
alternative energy system, which burns no fossil fuels and has zero carbon emissions –
and thereby delivers energy security at a local level. The design rational necessitated
energy efficiency and energy conservation measures, the reduction to a minimum of “ondemand” electrical power, and the use of a small, modest performance fuel cell car.
The immediate benefit of the PURE Project to the Unst community has been the creation
of high quality jobs and the inward migration of a skilled workforce. The Project has
provided unprecedented publicity for the island and for Shetland in general. The Shetland
community has been described by international hydrogen industry experts as being
“pioneers in this ground-breaking technology”1. The PURE Project has also spawned new
sustainable businesses. The most significant of these is the PURE Energy Centre Ltd.,
and its first spin-out company PUREShetland. The latter company has attracted around
£50,000 of private sponsorship from within Shetland for developing a super-efficient
hydrogen fuel cell car as part of an educational project with local schools.
Logically, hydrogen applications such as fuel cells currently being developed worldwide
require a sustainable source of hydrogen to support their use. The PURE Hydrogen
Production Unit (Hypod) is currently the only proven off-grid system, which can deliver
such a sustainable source of hydrogen from a renewable energy input – solar, wind or
hydro.
PURE Vision
The PURE project has demonstrated that renewable hydrogen on a small scale is a niche
market opportunity for businesses in remote communities. There is a growing political and
public demand to have tangible, visible, hydrogen projects now. Such projects help
promote the technology, develop relevant technical skills, and contribute to building a
hydrogen transport refuelling infrastructure within the region. Currently the larger motor
manufacturers with prototype hydrogen vehicles are still using reformed hydrogen which
causes substantial carbon emissions during its production.
At present the principal market for pre-commercial and prototype renewable hydrogen
systems is one supported by public sector finance. However, the PURE Project has
shown how investment at community level delivers far greater value for public investment
in this technology than in very costly projects involving conventional car and bus
manufacturers and oil companies. A renewable hydrogen infrastructure, based around
small scale community owned hydrogen production units, can deliver these same
strategic development objectives anywhere in the world, providing a radically different
energy infrastructure to that which is conventionally supported by the oil, gas, coal, and
nuclear industries. This vision allows distributed energy generation to become a reality,
and enables energy consumers to become more involved in energy production.
1
Karen Hall, Secretary of the US National Hydrogen Association quoted in the Sunday
Times
ENDS