Professor Michael Morris:

I have a quick comment. One does not just have to think about oil. Hydrogen and CO2 make methanol and ethanol. That would be a tremendous benefit to us because it takes carbon importation down. It makes diesel and high-quality petrol, as well as aviation fuels. It comes from a technology developed in the 1960s in South Africa when, as a result of apartheid, exports of all petrol products to that country were banned. South Africa switched its industry within five years to be totally reliant on hydrogen as a form of petrol. There are loads of things we could do with it. We have a problem with regard to emissions because we have such a heavy reliance on air transport, so it is something we should think about.

Going back the hydrogen demonstration, it is a very small-scale demonstration of that, but in terms of this sandbox concept, Scottish isles have a direct offshore wind to hydrogen storage and that is piped around the island system to generate electricity as part of the infrastructure. It is very successful as far as I am aware, but my colleagues probably know more about that than I do.