H2 View understands the Government is seeking consultation on:
Design options for hydrogen transport and storage infrastructure business models.
The need for strategic planning function to guide the rollout of hydrogen transport and storage infrastructure and potential implementation options.
Whether the existing market framework and industry commercial arrangements are optimal for supporting the deployment of hydrogen transport and storage infrastructure.
The suitability of the non-economic regulatory framework across the hydrogen value chain.
The extent to which blending might help provide market-building benefits for the hydrogen economy, including bringing forward investment in hydrogen production while larger-scale hydrogen transport and storage infrastructure is being developed.
The invite for consultation comes after major industry representatives have pleaded for more work to be done on developing hydrogen transport and storage in the country. Previously speaking to H2 View, Celia Greaves, CEO of the UK Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Association (UKHFCA) stressed the need for more progress on hydrogen storage and transportation policy.
Read more: What could be next for UK hydrogen under a new Prime Minister?
Greaves explained, “We want to accelerate progress with hydrogen storage in line with the momentum we see elsewhere. This will be critical to ensuring that we can marry up supply and demand and optimise hydrogen’s role in balancing across the energy system
“We would really like to see a strategy on hydrogen for transport, which brings together all the different modes, how they will access hydrogen as a fuel and how the infrastructure will evolve.”
The Government has said the consultation which closes at 11:45pm GMT on November 22, 2022, will be if interest to: hydrogen producers, hydrogen consumers, gas transporters, gas shippers, storage operators, investors, consumer champions, trade associations, and academics.
What could be next for UK hydrogen under a new Prime Minister?
One could be forgiven for overlooking many of the positive initiatives set out during Boris Johnson’s stint as leader of the UK, given a two-year long battle with the Covid-19 pandemic and high-profile scandals that latterly dogged his time in office.
Nevertheless, in the years of the Johnson Premiership, the UK has seen a significant push to develop and deploy a range of hydrogen technologies. With millions of pounds having been made available for pilot projects, and the doubling of the low-carbon hydrogen production goal to 10GW by 2030, despite his tenuous tenure in office, it would be difficult to say that the UK’s hydrogen industry is not in better shape than before Johnson took residence in Number 10.
The current UK hydrogen strategy saw from the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) forecast that by 2050, the nation could require between 250-460TWh of hydrogen to delivery up to a third of final energy consumption [1].
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