Meld Energy expects to accelerate the development of its 100MW green hydrogen project at the Saltend Chemical Park in the UK’s Humber region after securing backing from Schroders Greencoat, the energy transition arm of investment manager Schroders Capital.

Schroders Greencoat has acquired a majority stake in UK-based Meld. The Saltend project, one of the UK’s largest green hydrogen plants, already has planning consent. The target startup date is 2028/29, with an output of 13,400t/yr. The electrolyser will draw on the region’s offshore and onshore wind generation. The project has the potential to scale up to 200MW, according to Meld.

“Schroders Greencoat brings expert capital, unique in-house engineering understanding, and a long track record of working constructively with industrial partners and government,” said Chris Smith, founder & CEO of Meld Energy. “Their experience, expertise and investment is a strong vote of confidence in our team and in Saltend’s potential to help decarbonise the Humber. Together we will be able to accelerate development at Saltend and across our project pipeline.”

James Samworth, co-head of M&A, Schroders Greencoat, described Meld’s projects as being in “highly strategic locations with strong fundamentals”. “We believe we can achieve big things together,” he added.

Schroders Greencoat claims to be the UK’s largest investment manager in the hydrogen sector, with more than 300MW under development. Three projects, totalling 55MW and backed by Schroders Greencoat through its joint venture Green Hydrogen Energy Company with Carlton Power, were successful in the UK government’s first Hydrogen Allocation Round. FID is expected on the first of these projects at Barrow-in-Furness (Cumbria), before the end of the year.

East Coast boost

The investment in Meld is a boost for the UK’s East Coast Cluster, which also features H2H Saltend, a large-scale blue hydrogen project under development by Norway’s Equinor.

However, plans to develop the region’s clean hydrogen production base have received a setback this year as oil major BP has abandoned two major projects. In December, BP scrapped its 1.2GW H2Teesside blue hydrogen project, citing “deteriorating” demand and the loss of planning consents to a datacentre development. In March 2025, it pulled the plug on Hygreen Teesside, a 500MW green hydrogen project.

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Author: Stuart Penson