UPDATE - Octopus, RES JV working on H2 projects for Kimberly-Clark

A green hydrogen joint venture of RES and Octopus Energy Generation is working on two electrolyser projects with a combined capacity of 22.5 MW at UK factories of US personal care producers maker Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB), the UK partners announced today.

The two projects in Wales and Kent will replace industrial natural gas-fuelled boilers to reduce emissions and improve energy security. The on-site electrolysers will produce hydrogen with renewable electricity from sources such as wind and solar. The green hydrogen will be stored and used to power hydrogen-ready boilers in the factories that will generate heat for the manufacturing processes for tissues and toilet paper.

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The hydrogen joint venture, HYRO, is backed by Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust plc (LON:ORIT) and Sky fund (ORI SCSp), two funds managed by Octopus Energy Generation, as announced today. It aims to invest GBP 3 billion (USD 3.7bn/EUR 3.4bn) in the construction of green hydrogen plants in the UK.

The two Kimberly-Clark projects were recently shortlisted by the UK government for the first electrolytic hydrogen allocation round. According to the announcement, they will shortly start the planning process, with public consultations to begin imminently. A third HYRO project to decarbonise a whisky distillery in Scotland is also on the funding shortlist.

"These developments represent a huge step towards our ambition to move solely to renewable energy to manufacture Andrex, Kleenex, Huggies, WypAll and Scott in the UK by 2030," said Oriol Margo, EMEA sustainability leader at Kimberly-Clark.

Kimberly-Clark already has a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Octopus to receive power from the Cumberhead wind farm in Scotland. The wind farm recently went online and RES was awarded the asset management contract for it.

(GBP 1 = USD 1.248/EUR 1.140)