Headed up by the North West Hydrogen Alliance (NWHA), the week aims to unify all regions of the UK to progress the nation’s role in the emerging hydrogen economy, and capitalise on the opportunity the sector offers for meeting Net Zero targets, while driving economic growth.
Brett Ryan, Head of Policy, at Hydrogen UK, said this new calendar milestone is a testament to the growing momentum around hydrogen and its potential to decarbonise our economy, forming a core part of the UK’s path to net zero and economic growth.
“This week, Hydrogen UK will celebrate some of the many exciting projects our members are developing across the country. We are lucky to have a diverse membership from start-ups to multinationals representing all sections of the hydrogen value chain. We hope that the inaugural Hydrogen Week will raise hydrogen’s profile amongst a broader audience and demonstrate the important work our sector is doing.”
On Tuesday (February 14), the NWHA will bring together North West hydrogen stakeholders to discuss progress made in the region. The one day conference at the Spine in Liverpool, will host companies such as Progressive Energy, Cadent, INOVYN, Vertex Hydrogen, Carlton Power, Pilkington Glass, Peel Ports, and Equans. Additionally, Steve Rotherham, Mayor of Liverpool will deliver a keynote address.
Prof. Joe Howe, Chair of the NWHA and Executive Director of the Energy Research Institute at the University of Chester, said that if the UK wants to capitalise on the hydrogen opportunity, all regions must collaborate.
Howe commented, “Hydrogen Week will bring everyone together to raise awareness of the role that hydrogen can play in tackling climate change.” H2 View will be analysing each of the region’s strengths in the days ahead.
Jake Martin, Hydrogen Business Development Manager at Haskel, said the industry is at an exciting juncture in the deployment of hydrogen as an essential component in the UK’s path to Net Zero.
“The UK’s first official Hydrogen Week is further proof of the momentum we are witnessing around hydrogen and its potential to decarbonise almost every major mode of transportation, as well as our economy,” he said.
“We’ve seen a marked increase in demand recently for hydrogen refuelling stations globally, and have rapidly scaled our production capacity to meet it. Now is the time that we should be building the right infrastructure to support adoption and growth. We hope that Hydrogen Week helps to further celebrate and promote hydrogen and its role in paving the way to a zero emissions future.”
Dominic Weeks, Head of External Affairs and Marketing, ZeroAvia, said UK Hydrogen Week is an important initiative to raise awareness of the huge opportunity that hydrogen presents – not just in terms of reducing emissions, but also in driving economic growth and creating new, high-value green jobs.
He said, “Hydrogen is not a panacea, but it does represent the future of many currently hard-to-abate sectors, in particular aviation. Our recent first flight of the world’s largest aircraft ever flown with hydrogen fuel cell power, conducted in Gloucestershire, shone a light on the path to true zero-emission commercial flight this decade, something that probably would not have been predicted five years ago. This is one of many reasons to celebrate the UK’s significant developments in the hydrogen space.”
Jim Mercer, Business President, UK-BOC, said, “At BOC we’ve been safely producing and handling hydrogen for over 100 years so we know the challenges. But we also know that now there must be renewed focus across the board in creating infrastructure fit for the Net Zero challenge.
“It is undoubtedly a challenge, but one that needs to be met, given the wider environmental and economical stakes. Creating an interconnected web of low carbon hydrogen production across the UK can help decarbonise everything from transport to industry.”
UK policy in the spotlight
The UK Government in April (2022) released new plans to raise domestic low-carbon hydrogen production from 5GW to 10GW by 2030 with half to be completely green.
The updated energy strategy, unveiled to gain energy independence in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, came as a welcome signal to the UK hydrogen industry, which had previously said the early 5GW target didn’t go far enough.
The UK Government recently reaffirmed its commitment to hydrogen, as part of a major restructuring, with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy set to be split up into new departments.
Read more: Industry reacts to UK Government department shake-up
Mark Chadwick, Managing Director, Sustainability Solutions UK&I at ENGIE Impact, said establishing a dedicated team will be instrumental in ensuring the right governance, focus and management.
‘‘However, there needs to be total clarity on the new department’s remit, in order to ensure the direction and policies set are not misaligned,” he said.
“If it is looking just at emissions, it may miss out on addressing the demand side debate and the relationship with broader sustainability issues such as food and waste, impacting the net zero journey. Collaboration between these departments is going to be really important … we need innovation to solve some of the challenges of grid decarbonisation, such as the need for much better and cheaper energy storage.”
He said the creation of the new department is in some ways a response to the emergent threat to national security of energy supply, which has been accelerated most acutely by the Ukraine war.
“We will continue to see that dynamic as countries, not just in Europe, uncouple themselves from the historically dominant energy sources outside their national boundaries. We hope, even amid this crisis, governments do not use this as an excuse to delay their decarbonisation efforts.
‘‘We know this will ultimately accelerate the transition to renewable sources, but in the short term, traditional energy sources will be a necessary consequence in the transition. We have seen the dilemma this has created in Europe, resulting in the re-opening of a number of carbon-based energy sites, or establishing new ones, as is the case in the UK with the approval of a new coal mine in Cumbria.
‘‘From an international perspective, this also shows a direction of travel particularly by western governments through government structure and policy to accelerate the Net Zero journey whilst protecting energy security. We expect to see this trend continue around the world.’’
Another key policy development saw the publication of former Energy Minister Chris Skidmore’s Net Zero Review in January, which made 129 recommendations.
By the end of this year, it calls for an ambitious and pragmatic ‘10 year’ delivery roadmap for the scaling up of hydrogen production. Government should deliver hydrogen business models as soon as legislation allows and confirm the long-term funding envelope available for hydrogen revenue support, to incentivise timely investment.
Encouragingly it notes ‘huge ambition in local government and in all four nations of the UK’. More than 300 local authorities have set their own Net Zero target and/or declared a climate emergency.
Chancellor urged to seize Spring Budget opportunity
Ahead of the Spring Budget on March 15, Molly Scott Cato, former Green MEP and now Professor of Economics at the University of Roehampton London, believes the Chancellor must demonstrate greater commitment towards a green economy through policy initiatives that help homeowners and businesses embrace renewable energy.
“The UK lacks a robust strategy that supports key industries and the green economy, particularly to foster higher production of wind turbines and solar panels, and the production of electric vehicle batteries,” she said. “Unless the Spring Budget includes financial incentives akin to those being offered in the EU and US, the UK will become a second-class green economy.”
Financing decarbonisation remains a major issue. The Climate Change Committee (CCC) estimated investment of £50-60bn per year will be needed by the early 2030s to meet the UK’s Net Zero goals; but investing now ‘is cheaper than delaying’, notes the Office of Budget Responsibility.
Chris Denning, corporate and international tax partner at MHA, says a better course of action at the Spring Budget would be to focus on improving the UK’s long-term fuel security to mitigate future energy price spikes.
He said, “The UK government should use the Spring Budget to incentivise new investment in grid infrastructure, better connectivity and scalable energy storage capacity. Doing so would help shelter the UK from the short-term price volatility seen across Europe in the last year and bring long-term stability to energy prices.”
Current UK hydrogen production and use is heavily concentrated in chemicals and refineries. This hydrogen, largely produced from natural gas (without carbon capture), is used as a feedstock, or input, into making other chemicals and plays a variety of roles in refineries to convert crude oil into different end products.
Key industrial players representing a £73bn sector have signed a collaboration agreement to launch ‘Flue2Chem’ this month – a collaborative programme to transform the sustainability of the UK’s consumer products industry and reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a demonstration scale.
SCI (Society of Chemical Industry), Unilever and 13 other organisations have secured funding for a two-year programme to develop a new value chain to convert industrial waste gases into sustainable materials for consumer products. The project, which has been granted £2.68m from Innovate UK, aims to cut around 15-20m tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year and help the UK reach its Net Zero target.
Focal point for research
R&D remains one of the UK’s core strengths as the push towards decarbonisation intensifies.
Researchers from the University of Birmingham recently announced they have designed a novel adaptation for existing iron and steel furnaces that could reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the steelmaking industry by nearly 90%.
The reduction is achieved through a ‘closed loop’ carbon recycling system, which could replace 90% of the coke typically used in current blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace systems and produces oxygen as a biproduct.
H2 View’s coverage
H2 View is Official Media Partner of Hydrogen Week UK and will be bringing you the highlights across the week. Additionally, we will shine a light on key regions each day, curating developments and ambitions at local level. To keep up to date on all the news, follow H2 View’s LinkedIn and Twitter, as well Hydrogen Week UK’s own social media.