GENerating energy secure COMMunities through smart Renewable Hydrogen

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NWE Communities, especially in remote areas, face multiple challenges to become energy secure and sustainable. Growth in electricity from renewable sources is stalling due to intermittency, grid restrictions, curtailment, and high costs. Sustainable energy to supply the transport sector and heating demand are even further underexploited. GENCOMM will address these issues by developing a sustainable, renewable community-scaled, hydrogen (H2)-based, energy model based on the results of 3 pilot plants that will use local renewable sources to supply electricity, heating and transportation fuels. The project will begin by addressing the communities, mainly remote, around the pilot facilities in the Western Isles (Scotland), Saar-Lor-Lux region (Germany, France, and Luxembourg), and County Antrim, to then continue to expand throughout NWE region. GENCOMM aims to reverse the current situation in which communities meet 75-80% of their energy needs from non-renewable sources. The proposed model will allow renewable generated energy to: [1] be dispatchable [2] meet heating demand and [3] supply transportation fuels. Therefore, through the model, communities will be able to develop autonomous, secure and sustainable energy matrixes. The main output of the project is an H2-based energy model. The second output is the adaptation of the model to a Decision Support Tool (DST), allowing communities to project and implement their own H2-based energy matrix. The 3 H2-based pilot facilities (H2/biogas plant for heat and power, a solar-powered H2 station for vehicles, and a wind farm with H2 storage and distribution) will constitute the third output of the project. The final output is the creation of an H2 stakeholder’s forum. The forum will, sustain the rollout of the project’s main outputs and support the continuous operation of the pilots.It will start with the partners and APs and then anticipates to address 20 new communities within 5 years and 50 within 10 years.

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