Green hydrogen developer Mercury Renewables plans to raise €100 million later this year to fund further expansion after announcing a key project for the northwest.
Mercury is seeking permission to build a €200 million green hydrogen plant at Firlough on the Mayo-Sligo border.
The plant will use wind-generated electricity to produce enough fuel to power almost 17,000 cars a year, positioning the company as Ireland’s first large-scale player in the industry.
Tim Bills-Everett, Mercury’s chief operations officer, said the company is weighing further projects here and in Britain.
“We’re intending to go out to the market later this year to raise at least €100 million for new developments,” he confirmed.
Foxford, Co Mayo-based Mercury has already identified up to three sites in Britain that it says could be suitable for development, while it believes the west of Ireland has huge potential for its industry.
“The cost of production is very, very low in Mayo and the west because of the world-class wind resource,” Mr Bills-Everett noted.
Mercury’s has been working on Firlough for three years and has just sought planning permission from An Bord Pleanála as a project of national strategic importance.
If An Bord Pleanála gives planning permission, Firlough will produce 4.5 million kg of green hydrogen a year, enough to fuel 16,665 cars or 125 trains or 1,400 buses.
Hydrogen is produced by applying an electric charge to water, separating the gas from oxygen. Green versions of the fuel are produced using renewable electricity.
The gas is most suitable as a fuel for heavy transport and for manufacturing processes that require very high temperatures.
Hydrogen is three times as powerful as the kerosene used in jet engines. However, it is volatile and some methods of transporting it can be expensive.
Burning hydrogen produces water vapour, so any greenhouse gas emissions are minimal, which has prompted the EU and the private sector to begin pouring hundreds of billions of euro into its development.
The lack of emissions means green hydrogen offers a potentially radical way of cutting greenhouse emissions from activities such as heavy transport, which are otherwise difficult to “decarbonise”.
The Government last week produced a green hydrogen strategy, which aims to have 2,000 megawatts of offshore wind-generated electricity dedicated to producing hydrogen, by 2030.
Mr Bills-Everett observed that for the strategy to work, there needs to be a market for the fuel.
“What we really need is for there to be follow-on. The next step will need grants or funding in order to drive uptake of the fuel,” he said.
He said that hydrogen-powered heavy goods trucks cost 1½ times as much as diesel-powered vehicles, so any businesses pondering a switch to the fuel would have to take the cost into account.
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[ Green hydrogen: Ireland’s big future fuel opportunityOpens in new window ]
Some existing businesses already use hydrogen, including several in the Republic’s well-established medical devices industry.
Mr Bills-Everett argued that getting these enterprises to convert to the fuel’s green version would also be a step in the right direction.
Mercury, run by chief executive, John Duffy, whose family are from Foxford, has been in business since 2009.
The company says that the Firlough project will create up to 150 construction jobs and 20 posts once it is completed.
The facility includes a 78-megawatt onshore wind farm, with 13 turbines, and the hydrogen production plant itself.
In a statement confirming that the company had lodged its planning application, Mr Bills-Everett predicted that the project would help establish the west of Ireland as a centre for green hydrogen production.
