First-ever vision to kick start world-leading hydrogen economy set to support over 9,000 UK jobs and unlock £4 billion investment by 2030.

Consultation also launched to look at ways to overcome cost gap between low carbon hydrogen and fossil fuels.

The decarbonisation of polluting, energy-intensive industries by 2030 may be possible once these sectors move away from fossil fuels, and towards low-carbon hydrogen. Government funding of £105 million will be provided to support polluting industries slashing their emissions.

The plan will drive forward the Prime Minister’s ambitious 10 Point Plan for a green industrial revolution by outlining how the UK government will cooperate with industry to achieve 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030.

Additionally, a hydrogen economy will be a key pillar in the UK’s transition to cleaner energy sources. This low-carbon hydrogen economy could save the equivalent to the carbon captured by 700 million trees by 2032.

A thriving, UK-wide hydrogen economy could be worth over £900 million and create over 9,000 high-quality jobs, which may rise to 100,000 jobs and be worth up to £13 billion by 2050.

Government analysis has suggested that up to 30% of the UK’s energy consumption could be hydrogen-based by 2050. Therefore, this plan to create a low-carbon hydrogen economy could play a crucial role in helping meet our net zero emissions target by 2050 and cutting emissions by 78% by 2035.

Further support the UK government is providing for hydrogen projects include:

1. £240 million Net Zero Hydrogen Fund to support new hydrogen production projects;

2. Hydrogen Business Model to stimulate private investment in new low carbon hydrogen projects;

3. Phase 2 of the £315 million Industrial Energy Transformation Fund to support industry to switch to low carbon fuels, including hydrogen;

4. Up to £60 million through the Low Carbon Hydrogen Supply 2 competition to support innovative hydrogen production, transport and storage technologies;

5. £68 million Longer Duration Energy Storage Demonstration competition;

6. World-leading trials of hydrogen for heating, including a hydrogen neighbourhood trial by 2023, hydrogen village trial by 2025 and potential pilot hydrogen town by the end of the decade;

7. Up to £183 million for transport decarbonisation, including trials and roll-outs of hydrogen technologies for buses, HGV lorries, shipping and aviation, including:

up to £120 million this year through the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) scheme towards 4,000 new zero emission buses, either hydrogen or battery electric, and infrastructure needed to support them

up to £20 million this year to design trials for both electric road system and hydrogen long haul heavy road vehicles (HGVs) and to run a battery electric trial to establish the feasibility, deliverability, costs and benefits of each technology

up to £20 million this year for the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition

up to £15 million this year for the ‘Green Fuels, Green Skies’ competition to support the production of first-of-a-kind sustainable aviation fuel plants in the UK

£3 million this year to support the development of a Hydrogen Transport Hub in Tees Valley, and £4.8 million (subject to business case) to support the development of a hydrogen hub in Holyhead, Wales

The £95 million UK government funding package and £10 million Industrial Energy Efficiency Accelerator (IEEA) comes from the £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio. See details of all 3 competitions, and how to register interest. As part of the £10 million IEEA, the government has awarded £1.7 million to the Carbon Trust to be the delivery partner for the programme.

Picture from: UK Hydrogen Strategy - Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy by Command of Her Majesty August 2021