The government has set out its plans to kick-start a world-leading hydrogen economy across the UK. Hydrogen technology is expected to play a significant role in the country’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions, helping to decarbonise polluting, energy-intensive industries by as early as 2030. It is also eagerly anticipated in healthcare. Already, hydrogen-electric powered ambulances are being trialled and the Net Zero NHS plan confirms that combined heat and power engines that run on hydrogen require more investigation to assess their viability for energy generation on the NHS estate.
Hydrogen infrastructure is currently lacking and its development is now being viewed as essential. The House of Lords’ Science and Technology Select Committee recently stressed the importance of a clear hydrogen strategy, saying this “must be coordinated with the government’s other decarbonisation strategies, to enable the use of hydrogen in those sectors for which it is the most viable option.”
Government analysis suggests that 20-35% of the UK’s energy consumption by 2050 could be hydrogen-based. This new energy source could be critical to meet the UK’s targets of net zero emissions by 2050 and cutting emissions by 78% by 2035 – a view shared by the UK’s independent Climate Change Committee. In the UK, a low-carbon hydrogen economy could deliver emissions savings equivalent to the carbon captured by 700 million trees by 2032 and is a key pillar of capitalising on cleaner energy sources as the country moves away from fossil fuels.
Business & Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng says: “This home-grown clean energy source has the potential to transform the way we power our lives and will be essential to tackling climate change and reaching Net Zero.
“With the potential to provide a third of the UK’s energy in the future, our strategy positions the UK as first in the global race to ramp up hydrogen technology and seize the thousands of jobs and private investment that come with it.”
One of the issues with hydrogen technology is its cost. The government’s approach is based on the UK’s previous success with offshore wind, where one of the main tools used was the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme, which incentivises investment in renewable energy by providing developers with direct protection from volatile wholesale prices and protects consumers from paying increased support costs when electricity prices are high.
As such, the government has launched a public consultation on a preferred hydrogen business model which, built on a similar premise to the offshore wind CfDs, is designed to overcome the cost gap between low carbon hydrogen and fossil fuels, helping the costs of low-carbon alternatives to fall quickly, as hydrogen comes to play an increasing role in our lives. Alongside this, the government is consulting on the design of the £240 million Net Zero Hydrogen Fund, which aims to support the commercial deployment of new low carbon hydrogen production plants across the UK.
There are also concerns over safety, but the government says hydrogen can be made as safe as natural gas, and as the hydrogen economy develops, all necessary assessments will be carried out and measures put in place to ensure that hydrogen is stored, distributed and used in a safe way.
The UK government is already working with the Health and Safety Executive and energy regulator Ofgem to support industry to conduct first-of-a-kind hydrogen heating trials. These trials along with the results of a wider research and development testing programme will inform a UK government decision in 2026 on the role of hydrogen in decarbonising heat. If a positive case is established, by 2035 hydrogen could be playing a significant role in heating people’s homes and businesses, powering cars, cookers, boilers and more – helping to slash carbon emissions from the UK’s heating system and tackle climate change.
The Hydrogen Strategy is one of a series of strategies the UK government is publishing ahead of the UN Climate Summit COP26 taking place in Glasgow this November.
A booming, UK-wide hydrogen economy could be worth £900 million and create over 9,000 high-quality jobs by 2030, potentially rising to 100,000 jobs and worth up to £13 billion by 2050.
