The government-backed Speyside Hydrogen initiative was rejected after councillors suggested environmental and community risks outweighed the economic and decarbonisation benefits of the plans.

H2 View understands that opponents said water scarcity and ecological risks were inadequately addressed, raising concerns over River Spey abstraction and biodiversity.

Speyside’s Hydrogen Opportunity Manager Christina Smitton reportedly opposed this, suggesting the Marypark site was “ideally placed” and that the proposed water use was minimal at just 0.05% of the Spey’s flow.

Adversaries also pointed to limited local benefits – just 30 new jobs, according to Storegga – as community and fisheries groups joined in opposition, too.

The UK-based clean energy developer may now have to redesign or abandon its Speyside plans altogether. The Scottish government provided a £3.1m ($4.1m) grant to support the project last year.

Storegga submitted the proposal to Moray Council in March, following two public consultations in 2024.

If approved, production was slated to start in 2026 through a phased build-out.

Two 70MW electrolysers would have produced up to 25 tonnes of green hydrogen per day, cutting an estimated 50,000 tonnes of CO2 annually and helping decarbonise local whisky production, which emitted more than 600,000 tonnes in 2022.

An elementalenergy report identified distilleries as the third largest demand source for hydrogen in the industry, with the potential annual hydrogen demand for all distilleries in Scotland estimated to be 1.4 TWh.

Set to be one of Scotland’s largest hydrogen projects, it would have supported the country’s goal of producing up to 3.3 million tonnes of green hydrogen a year by 2045, largely for export.

The rejection comes amid wider setbacks to Scotland’s hydrogen ambitions, with Scottish Power last month pausing its 10 MW Whitelee and 10.6 MW Cromarty Hydrogen projects — the latter co-developed with Storegga.