Wrightbus speaker at hydrogen webinar

The webinar will cover how businesses and the community can optimise GreenH2 to deliver increased benefits across the hydrogen value chain, accelerating cost reductions for hydrogen production, transmission, distribution, retail, and end applications.

The April 15 webinar will be introduced by GenComm Project Co-ordinator Paul McCormack.

Paul explained: “We have a fantastic line up of speakers for this webinar who will cover the green hydrogen value chain from ‘wind to wheel’ including mobility and industrial use. The speakers will cover the innovation pathway of production and use of this zero carbon fuel as part of our energy transition journey , outlining how hydrogen is revolutionising our energy matrix and helping us to continue our journey to net zero C02. True energy innovation is about developing and delivering sustainable solutions that meet community and environmental need. As part of the GenComm work in generating energy secure communities, GenComm are optimising solutions with SMARTH2 to meet the twin goals of achieving energy security and sustainability.”

Robert Best, the Director of Engineering at the Wrightbus will speak on ‘H2 Mobility’ at the virtual event. The Ballymena company hit the headlines on March 22 when the UK government announced a £54 million package for projects including hydrogen fuel cell for buses. A total of £11.2 million was announced to develop and manufacture low cost hydrogen fuel cell technology for buses and to create a local hydrogen centre of excellence with Wrightbus in Ballymena.

The UK Transport Minister Rachel Maclean explained: “As we look to reduce our carbon emissions, strive towards our net-zero goals and level up right across the UK, the whole transport sector will need to embrace new innovative technology such as green hydrogen and these projects are a fantastic example of doing just that.”

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis said: ”Northern Ireland and the local economy thrives on innovation, manufacturing and technological advancements, leading the charge in allowing us to reach our ambitious goal of a net zero future by 2050.

“With a landmark investment of £11.2 million this will enable Wrightbus to become a centre of excellence for zero-emission technology in the heart of Ballymena.

“This is outstanding news for the people of Northern Ireland, protecting more than 1,000 skilled jobs and creating more than 3,000 additional jobs over the next 10 years. This will continue to level up our local economy, allowing Wrightbus to continue producing the next generation of world-leading hydrogen buses.”

In relation to this Simon Mc Cormick, Chief Technical Officer at Echelon Data Centres will speak on ‘Hydrogen Powering Data Centres’. Simon has managed and delivered data centre projects in Ireland, Europe and the Middle East for a variety of cloud service providers and enterprise end users. Simon joined Echelon after four years at a global engineering firm where he was part of the data centre leadership team.

A third speaker on April 15 is Mark Welsh, the Energy Services Manager at GenComm partner Energia who will speak on ‘Green H2 Supply’. Mark stated: “This webinar also examines how hydrogen generation and supply can meet mobility needs and also how it can be optimised to meet energy demands showing innovation in action.“

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