Doubts over plans for controversial hydrogen plant

Martin Shipton

A senior council official has told a councillor that progress has stalled on a controversial hydrogen power plant because if a Japanese company’s “financial position on the project”

Marubeni’s plan to build the plant was granted planning permission earlier this year.

But several months later there is still no sign of the project going ahead on the outskirts of Bridgend

In an email to Independent councillor Tim Thomas, Janine Nightingale, the corporate director, communities at Bridgend County Borough Council (BCBC) stated: “There is not an agreed start date for the Hybont Project. I believe that Marubeni are considering their financial position on the project.”

Cllr Thomas told Nation.Cymru: “Despite the major rush to get Hybont through planning, all has gone very quiet. It took three attempts, and only when I copied in our new Chief Executive, did I get the response that there is no start date and Marubeni are considering their financial position.”

In 2022 BCBC signed a memorandum of understanding with Marubeni which set out how they intended to work together to explore and develop a hydrogen energy initiative. But later BCBC withdrew from the project on the grounds of affordability. It was later taken up by Cardiff Capital Region, which has agreed to buy the land if planning permission for a hydrogen and solar plant on the site is granted.

However, Marubeni has a chequered history, with a total of 86 separate convictions involving the corporation and its subsidiary companies in the United States since 2000 with fines totalling nearly $160m.

The two most serious offences relate to two bribery convictions under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, with one resulting in a fine of £88m and the other a fine of $54.6m.

Construction

There are safety concerns too.

Lawrence Till is a director of an engineering company whose premises in Bridgend looks on to the site of a hydrogen plant whose construction is due to start in the autumn.

He has spent his career working in the energy industry and has years of experience working in zones with elevated explosion risks. He has expressed concern about the safety of hydrogen plants like the one proposed, stating: “The costs associated with hydrogen are significant – and the safety issues of hydrogen are very significant. When Norway had four [hydrogen] filling stations, one of them exploded, resulting in the whole of the infrastructure for hydrogen cars in the country collapsing. There have been multiple hydrogen-related issues in transport in California, including a seven-month old facility with 10 buses at $1.1m each where one of the buses exploded during refuelling.”

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) originally recommended against approving a Hazardous Substances Consent application on the basis that it has “concluded that the risks to the surrounding population arising from the proposed operation(s) are sufficiently high to justify advising against the granting of Hazardous Substances Consent on grounds of safety”.

Design modification

Following a design modification, the HSE withdrew its objection., and planning permission was granted,

In 2023 the council issued a statement explaining why it was no longer an active participant in the project, stating: “Bridgend County Borough Council has had to make the very difficult decision to withdraw its financial support from this project because of the very challenging budget situation the authority is now facing, in common with many other local authorities in Wales and the UK. In this difficult financial situation, the council must now prioritise its resources on essential service delivery, so as part of this it is reviewing its involvement in a range of projects, including HyBont.”

Mr Till spoke against the project at the planning meeting where permission was granted. He claimed that, as he was speaking, he overheard one planning officer say to another that he should be stripped of a business grant he had been awarded. The council denied that such a comment had been made.

We tried without success to get a statement from Marubeni.