GeoPura™ and Siemens Energy partnered to successfully provide green hydrogen-powered electricity to broadcast Winterwatch, a live TV program by BBC Bristol

Credit: GeoPura™ website
The UK created history by broadcasting a live episode of BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit’s program called Winterwatch with power generated exclusively by green hydrogen. This is the world’s first large-scale broadcast unit to be powered by green hydrogen. The successful broadcast is a result of a tri-partnership between BBC Bristol, GeoPura™ and Siemens Energy. Siemens Energy provided the technical support and GeoPura™ provided the infrastructure to supply uninterrupted, emissions-free electricity to BBC Bristol’s broadcast unit using a GeoPura™ 250kW hydrogen power unit. The unit is capable of providing 400V of electricity backed up by a 216kWh battery storage system. The unit can also be used to supply heating and hot water.
GeoPura™ and Siemens Energy are hopeful that this collaborative exercise can power the Winterwatch program for the duration of the entire series, which is 2 weeks. The unit has been stationed outside BBC Bristol’s office and will remain there until the end of this month. Green hydrogen is produced by using renewable energy and electrolysis. In a single day of electricity production by green hydrogen, BBC Bristol was able to offset 425kg of carbon dioxide which would have been produced if electricity had been generated by a diesel-powered generator.
Andrew Cunningham, GeoPura’s Managing Director, said: “The BBC Studios Natural History Unit and the Winterwatch production team, are to be congratulated for taking their environmental responsibilities seriously, even when it means working with unfamiliar technology in a high-pressure environment. The key is to ensure as a society that this behavior is our habit and not a special case. This is why, working with our partner Siemens Energy, we’re providing our zero-emission, clean hydrogen-fuelled power solutions around the world to organizations who really want to reduce their reliance on fossil fuel-based power generation systems.”
One of the biggest challenges to adopting green energy has been an unstable supply. With this successful pilot demonstrating green hydrogen’s resilient capacity to power live TV transmission, it is hoped that other countries and broadcasting corporations take note to play their part in meeting net-zero emission targets.