3. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to help businesses take full advantage of Scotland’s hydrogen potential. (S6O-02554)

The “Hydrogen Action Plan”, which was published in 2022, is supported by a programme of capital funding that is designed to accelerate the production of renewable hydrogen in Scotland. Funding to date includes more than £7 million in grants offered to projects via the hydrogen innovation scheme. Those projects will drive innovation in renewable hydrogen production, storage and distribution.

The next tranche of the hydrogen investment programme, the green hydrogen fund, will launch later this year. The fund will be open to projects that support renewable hydrogen production from Scotland’s abundant renewable energy resources.

I look forward to those announcements in the future.

How can we build on the successful work on hydrogen-powered transport in Aberdeen, and what can we do to increase the amount of hydrogen refuelling sites throughout Scotland?

Early on in my tenure as minister, I visited the very impressive Aberdeen hydrogen hub. We have invested more than £15 million from our energy transition fund in developing the hub, which aims to accelerate the hydrogen economy in Aberdeen. Indeed, it is leading the way on that, and I know from my visit that local authorities from throughout the United Kingdom have been visiting the model with the aim of establishing it in their areas.

We will continue to work with partners in the public and private sectors to understand and stimulate the demand and the infrastructure needed for hydrogen vehicles. The zero-emission truck task force, which includes Transport Scotland, is exploring the energy infrastructure that is required for heavy goods vehicles, including the consideration of hydrogen refuelling, and we will also be publishing an HGV decarbonisation pathway next year.

The Deputy Presiding Officer:

I have a number of requests for supplementaries. I intend to take each of them, so I hope that everyone will be reasonably brief.

I think that we will all agree that Scotland is uniquely placed to capitalise on the green hydrogen market. I know that the minister was at an event last night on the supply chain. At a business meeting yesterday morning, I was told that it was really important for the approach going forward to be demand led. What is the Scottish Government doing to create a marketplace for the green hydrogen companies that are now coming to fruition?

There are two markets for hydrogen: the domestic market and the export market. This morning, I was pleased to have a meeting with Graham Stuart of the UK Government, and in answer to my question on injecting hydrogen into the gas grid to make up 20 per cent of the total gas—something that we have been calling for for quite a while—I was told that the UK Government is actively looking at that. That is a use for hydrogen. The distillery sector, which is massive, is also using hydrogen to decarbonise.

The question gives me the opportunity to say that Neil Gray is in Germany at the moment to promote and further Scotland’s hydrogen interests and to support Scottish companies to participate in and benefit from the development of the international hydrogen market. As Mr Whittle will know, Germany has already started work on decarbonising its industry using hydrogen, so that is a great market for us.

I welcome the minister’s reference to renewable hydrogen, as it is critical that we produce green hydrogen in Scotland. Does she acknowledge the importance of linking to renewable electricity production and creating jobs and opportunities not just in the north-east, as she outlined, but in Grangemouth?

Absolutely—we have a commitment to that. Quite a lot of hydrogen innovation is happening throughout the country. For example, Ms Boyack will be aware of the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney; when it could not get its tidal energy into the grid, it made hydrogen with it instead. Quite a lot of micro hydrogen production is happening throughout Scotland.

I have been having conversations with the Grangemouth facility about the hydrogen that it intends to produce and, more recently, there have been positive noises about green hydrogen, in particular.

Shetland is well placed as an energy hub at the centre of the energy-rich North Sea, with the local Orion project aiming to produce wind-powered green hydrogen by 2025. What engagement has the Scottish Government had with that project?

I have not had the pleasure of going up to Shetland yet, mainly because the cabinet secretary went to the Northern Isles in the summer and it did not make sense for us both to go. However, I look forward to engaging with the project—perhaps Ms Wishart would like to invite me.

The empty Longannet site in Kincardine, in my region, has huge potential for green jobs. What recent discussions has the minister had with Scottish Power, which owns the site, about its plans for the site and how it can help advance the Government’s hydrogen ambitions?

I will have to look back at all the engagement that I have had with the owners of the site, and it is entirely possible that Mr Gray has engaged with them, too. I will get back to Ms Baker to let her know what engagement there has been.