Clash over land puts schemes in jeopardy

TEESWORKS HYDROGEN PLANT PLANS COULD IMPACT DATA CENTRE

- By STUART ARNOLD

TWO major planned schemes on the Teesworks industrial site have been pitted against each other in a dispute that has prompted a legal letter to be sent to the Government.

The South Tees Development Corporation (STDC) and Teesworks’ commercial arm Teesworks Limited are objecting to an application seeking a development consent order for BP’s H2 Teesside scheme.

The scheme is due to be on the complex near Redcar and intends to produce blue hydrogen for energy purposes from natural gas.

A letter from legal firm Broadfield sent to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero on behalf of the South Tees Group (STG), which includes STDC and Teesworks Ltd, said the BP scheme could prevent progress on a data centre campus, which is of “critical national importance”.

It said land within the limits of the order “directly clashes” with land required for the latter.

Also, a proposed inner zone for hazardous installations needed for the H2 Teesside scheme would lead to planning restrictions incompatible with the data centre facility.

The letter revealed that negotiations for BP to acquire the land required through an option agreement had also ‘stalled’, suggesting a “lack of engagement and progress” had been caused by uncertainty over how construction costs would be funded.

H2 Teesside was first announced in 2021 amid hopes it would be responsible for up to a fifth of the UK’s entire hydrogen production by 2030 and play a part in delivering hundreds of new jobs.