By the time planned solutions are implemented in the next decade, the cost of wind energy curtailment will have increased to an annual £3.5 billion, the researchers calculated.
The ‘Turning Wasted Wind into Clean Hydrogen’ report, published on 1 February, found that in 2022 the volume of wasted wind power generation was sufficient to produce more than 118,000 tonnes of green hydrogen, rising to 455,000 tonnes by 2029.
Between 2021 and 2022, congestion payments cost in excess of £350 million, it added.
The report calls on the UK government to encourage electrolyser adoption in heavily curtailed areas to leverage wasted wind energy and “supercharge our nascent hydrogen economy”.
As the UK’s offshore wind fleet grows from 14GW today to the 50GW offshore wind target in 2030, the report estimates that curtailment is on track to increase fivefold, wasting enough electricity to power more than five million households for a year.
Scotland’s 8.8GW of onshore wind capacity – anticipated to grow to 20GW by 2030 – is “set to face higher constraint frequency than more southerly resources”, the report added.
The development of new transmission infrastructure and energy storage assets, together with the review of electricity market arrangements (Rema) reforms, will help tackle the problems.
However, the addition of new generation capacity will outpace these developments, which are expected to take a decade or longer to fully materialise.
The UK envisions a but continues to face challenges in scaling its nascent hydrogen economy.
“At present, there is insufficient incentive – and significant barriers – for energy market participants to make use of curtailed wind for productive purposes,” the report said. “Scaling electrolysers as a flexible energy resource will allow for far greater integration of wind generation than currently possible, particularly of those .”
Turning curtailed wind into hydrogen would also place the UK in a far stronger position to compete for hydrogen exports to Europe, the report suggested.
“Reforms are particularly critical in anticipation of our target to achieve 95% of generation from low-carbon sources by 2030 and the role of hydrogen to balance the grid, when more than half of all hours could see excess generation,” Policy Exchange added.
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