A green hydrogen facility is planned for the Port of Felixstowe with the potential to decarbonise industry and transportation in the eastern region.

Energy firm ScottishPower is exploring the possibility of building and operating the multi-hundred-megawatt hub, which could help create a greener port and provide clean fuel for customers at Britain’s busiest container terminal.

Plans are being developed to use green hydrogen for onshore purposes, such as road, rail and industrial use, with the potential to create liquid forms, such as green ammonia or E-methanol.

This could, in turn, provide clean fuels for shipping and aviation and create opportunities for cost-effective export to international markets.

Up to 40 tonnes of hydrogen could be produced each day – enough to power 1,300 hydrogen trucks.

The project aims to continue engineering and site development works to meet customer demand from 2025 onwards.

A spokesman for ScottishPower said being "homemade", green hydrogen could provide security of UK energy supply and was a safe, long-term energy solution that could be vital for those who cannot decarbonise their operations through renewable electricity alone.

As well as accelerating the potential for cleaner industrial processes at the port, green hydrogen was also poised to transform the heavy transport sector, which emitted a significant amount of the UK’s current carbon emissions.

The firm’s hydrogen director Barry Carruthers said: “This strategically important project could potentially create a clean fuels hub that could unlock nationally significant decarbonisation for the region, as well as playing a role in international markets.

“It’s perfectly located not far from our existing and future offshore windfarms in the East Anglia region and demonstrates how renewable electricity and green hydrogen can now start to help to decarbonise road, rail, shipping and industry.”

Therese Coffey, MP for Suffolk Coastal, said: “I warmly welcome Hutchison Ports and ScottishPowers’ joint plans to explore opportunities for a large-scale hydrogen hub at the Port of Felixstowe, providing green fuel at the UK’s largest container port.

“It’s schemes like this — and investment from industry as well as government – which is crucial for us to reach net zero by 2050.”