Original Coverage & Source Attribution: www.thenational.scot
Creca Hydrogen was given the go-ahead this week to construct the energy production facility near Annan.
Councillors on Dumfries and Galloway Council’s planning committee backed the plan – on the condition that a legal agreement is signed.
The company’s website states: “The Creca Hydrogen Facility will produce more than 4,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per year, supporting the decarbonisation of industries across the region including food and drink producers, other manufacturers and public sector operations.
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“The facility will be directly connected to new-build renewable assets, enabling the development of new, renewable generation in Dumfries and Galloway.”
The 4.1-hectare site was the RAF Annan airfield before the Chapelcross nuclear power station was built next to it. The new plant will be located on the airfield’s disused runway.
Planning case officer Neil Simpson said the site “still bears the hallmarks of the former runway”.
The report describes it as brownfield land, which is land that has been built on before.
It adds that the site could be contaminated by the nuclear station and by radium used on aircraft dials at the airfield.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) didn’t object, and two planning conditions mean the company must investigate the ground, and clean up anything it finds, before work starts.
The plant is set to make hydrogen energy from wind and solar power that the grid can’t take. This energy is set to go to local industries within 20 miles.
The former Chapelcross Nuclear Power Station near Annan.
Simpson said the development would “create employment and redevelop a brownfield site”.
However, councillors were unhappy that no one from the company attended the planning committee on Wednesday to answer questions. Nith Councillor David Slater said: “I believe that they should come and explain in a lot more detail what we are actually getting.”
Annandale South Councillor Sean Marshall, whose ward covers the site, said: “There are quite a lot of questions we still have that we would have liked to speak to someone associated with the development.”
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Abbey Councillor Ian Blake asked if the decision could be put off until a company representative attended. Council officers insisted that bringing in an applicant was “an invitation rather than a requirement to speak.”
Councillor Marshall also questioned the number of jobs being created. The report stated up to four full-time jobs, but the company’s own papers suggested 30 to 40 staff once the plant is up and running. Councillor Marshall said: “That could have been made clearer in the report.”
Council leader Stephen Thompson, who moved approval, said: “I can’t see sufficient reason not to allow this to go ahead.”
