News: The future of energy production visible in Rotherham

The Rolls Royce Factory of the Future at the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham is set for its official launch after the installation of two wind turbines on site, but a larger wind turbine is set to go up at the adjacent Environmental Energy Technology Centre. Due to be completed by the end of the year the 225kW turbine and 45-metre tower will provide power for a revolutionary hydrogen mini grid, power the neighbouring Innovation Technology Centre, and provide energy to be sold to the National Grid. The mini grid works by using electricity from the turbine to split water into its component molecules,hydrogen and oxygen, in a device called an electrolyser, before compressing it and storing it in composite tanks. When demand outstrips the power the turbine generates, a 30kW fuel cell will convert the hydrogen back into electricity. The hydrogen mini grid is just one part of the sophisticated energy system designed to reduce the Environmental Energy Technology Centre's carbon emissions to zero. In a recent summit on climate chamnge, Gordon Brown said: "The overall added value of the low carbon energy sector by 2050 could be as high as $3 trillion per year worldwide, employing more than 25 million people. If Britain maintains its share of this growth there could be over a million people employed in our environmental industries within the next two decades." You can follow events on site thanks to a webcam on top of the Factory of the Future.

AMRC webcam
AMP website
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