Business / Proposed ammonia plant could help to heat the town
HARNESSING heat from a proposed green ammonia plant on the outskirts of Lerwick could – in theory – have the potential to supply district heating to every home in the town.
Statkraft hydrogen manager Brie Foster said supporting the Lerwick district heating network is viewed as key community benefit of the Tagdale project.
The Lerwick district heating system is operated by Shetland Heat Energy & Power (SHEAP), and its director Derek Leask said the Statkraft project would “generate more than double the waste heat currently produced by the energy recovery plant” – the network’s primary source of heat.
But he said it is “probably unrealistic to expect everyone in the town to convert to district heating”, although a new government grant scheme for new connections could help.
Foster was speaking as Statkraft held its first public engagement event on the Tagdale green ammonia project at the Sound Hall in Lerwick on Wednesday morning.
The project has been under wraps for a number of years, but now the company said it was in a position to speak more freely.
Located adjacent to the Hill of Tagdale, the proposed scheme would comprise of an electrolytic hydrogen to green ammonia production facility of up to 80MW.
The project has already been shortlisted for funding by the UK Government, as part of the Hydrogen Allocation Round 2.
Statkraft said ammonia is a common ingredient used to produce fertiliser, critical to agricultural food production, and could be used as a carbon-free fuel.
But the Tagdale development has drawn criticism over the so-called continued “industrialisation” of Shetland from energy development.
It has also faced some concern over its location, although Statkraft itself points to how it is located near to an existing industrial facility – the Dales Voe base where the decommissioning of oil and gas infrastructure has taken place.
The Tagdale plant could create 20 new jobs, and an estimated timeline says construction could start in 2027 before the facility goes into operation in 2029.
The development would be powered by the grid via the substation which is planned as part of Statkraft’s Mossy Hill wind farm, on the other side of the A970.
Foster said the power will then be taken via an underground cable up access tracks to the site, which would come from the A970 side rather than from the Dales Voe decommissioning base.
However it is not directly linked with the Mossy Hill wind farm, as the power will come generally from the grid.
The plant would also access water from the Lerwick waste water treatment works.
Around 150 tonnes of green ammonia could be produced a day, and a jetty would be constructed where ships can berth to receive the ammonia.
Ships could come around three or four times a year, Foster said.
It is relatively small compared to other developments, however, with Statkraft’s proposed plant at Scatsta potentially having a capacity of up to 400MW, for example.
Oxygen produced in the process would be released into the atmosphere and there will be no direct carbon dioxide emissions, Statkraft said.
The company also said the development will be “subject to a number of regulations and consenting regimes to ensure the production, transport and storage of the green ammonia is conducted safely”.
Surveys and assessments are being undertaken which will inform a future environmental impact assessment (EIA).
Foster said there is a “very well-established market for ammonia”, saying it also could be used as an ingredient for chemicals which may end up in cleaning products, or be used to produce plastics or synthetic fibres.
Shetland News raised the question of whether ammonia produced there could end up supporting arms manufacturing, given there is a reported demand for the chemical in explosives production or weapon propellants.
Foster said that this is not the intention of the site, with Statkraft’s community liaison manager Seumas Skinner saying the company has a “very strict” ethical policy with a list of companies it does not work with – and that includes a large number of companies manufacturing weapons and other arms.
“The likelihood of us or our product being used in any part of the weapon manufacturing lifecycle is very, very low,” he said.
Meanwhile community benefit from Tagdale could come in the form of supporting operations on SHEAP’s district heating network, Foster added.
She said the Haber-Bosch process involved in ammonia production is “very hot”, with the excess heat potentially able to be used.
Lerwick’s district heating scheme – which has been up and running for more than 20 years – uses heat generated from burning rubbish, which would otherwise go to landfill, in the town’s energy recovery plant to provide hot water to homes and businesses in the area.
This brings cost benefits for customers, with district heating comparing favourably to other energy forms.
At the moment around 1,300 properties in Lerwick are connected, which is about one third of the town.
Foster claimed that expanding the system with heat from Tagdale could nearly double the capacity of the Lerwick district heating network.
“The way we see that as a benefit to the community, is enabling more households in Lerwick to be able to switch to an alternative fuel from higher cost fuels,” she said.
In response to this, SHEAP director Leask told Shetland News that “if we were connected to it there would be potential to supply virtually every home in Lerwick”, in theory.
While it could be unrealistic to expect everyone to convert to district heating, Leask said new grant funding of up to £9,000 which will be made available to households to connect to the Lerwick district heating network “certainly makes that a more achievable prospect over time”.
Underground pipes would need to be laid – likely at a fairly significant expense – from the SHEAP headquarters to Tagdale.
But it is understood to be around the same distance from SHEAP as the energy recovery plant incinerator is, and the route to the Tagdale facility would largely be unobstructed in terms of existing infrastructure.
So what would the Tagdale plant look like? It is too early in the process for Statkraft to provide visualisations, but Foster said most of the electrolysers will be housed in a building approximately 15 metres high.
“The highest or the tallest equipment on the site would be our ammonia storage tank,” she added. “That is about 37 metres high. We will also have a flare on the site that will be about 30 metres high.
“That is not an operating flare as such, it will be used for maintenance and emergency purposes, and we would envisage needing to use it less than once a year.”
Statkraft added that that it intends to hold more public events next year, before submitting a planning application potentially mid-2026.
The company will hold another Tagdale engagement event today (Thursday) at the Tingwall Hall, from 1.30pm to 7pm.
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