Keele University said its new facility will produce green hydrogen from excess power generated by its on-site wind turbines and solar panels to allow its researchers to develop and test materials and infrastructure for the storage of the gas.

Electrolysers are increasingly being viewed as a tool to support grid balancing, by receiving power during periods of high wind and solar output, and switching off during high end-user demand.

These systems, however, will require large-scale buffer storage to ensure supply of hydrogen when it is not being produced.

In addition to its materials research, Keele University will use hydrogen produced by its system to fuel its two Toyota Mirais fuel cell cars.

Keele Senior Lecturer in Electrochemistry, Dr Charlie Creissen, said the project could offer “critical insights” into how hydrogen can be deployed on a national scale.

The Staffordshire institution conducted the “first pilot of blending hydrogen into a live gas grid” with the HyDeploy trial and led the cross-university Hydrogen Development and Knowledge Exchange.