Industry players present ‘key’ actions to bolster UK’s hydrogen economy

The Hydrogen Coordination Forum, which brings together a range of UK and regional bodies across the hydrogen landscape, has announced ten “key” actions to support the scale-up of new hydrogen infrastructure.

According to the Hydrogen Energy Association (HEA), these ten “quick wins” include:

• stimulate supply to accelerate overall roll-out,
• simplify planning framework to reduce costs and delays,
• reconfirm commitment to hydrogen for net zero to bolster investor confidence,
• clarify role for blending to enable project developers to better plan offtake,
• allow ‘Risk Taking Intermediaries’ in HAR2 to mitigate producer volume risk,
• reduce temporal correlation requirements on a temporary basis to improve cost competitiveness,
• define hydrogen internal combustion as ICE to allow the UK to reap economic and employment benefits across UK manufacturing,
• develop hydrogen refuelling standards to support roll-out of hydrogen mobility in the UK,
• include hydrogen within the ‘Venture Capital Scheme’ to enhance access to venture capital, and
• enhance role for regions in hydrogen roll-out to embed benefits nationally.

Celia Greaves, CEO of the Hydrogen Energy Association, said: “There has been some good initial progress to develop hydrogen in the UK, and many of these quick wins reflect the early stage of the industry and represent opportunities to smooth the path going forward. We agree that there are a series of ‘quick win’ policy reforms that, collectively, would support quicker growth of the UK hydrogen economy and accelerate the release of private investment into the market – results that are essential to deliver on the UK Government’s hydrogen growth targets.”

Ruth Herbert, CEO of the Carbon Capture & Storage Association (CCSA), stated: “Low carbon hydrogen has a pivotal role to play in the UK’s transition to net zero and carbon capture and storage enabled hydrogen production can provide a strong foundation for its future growth. Given the uncertainty facing the current UK project pipeline and attractive investment environments emerging elsewhere, there is an urgent need to accelerate enabling policies and foster investor confidence to secure the UK’s position as a world-leading hydrogen economy.”

Barney Wharton, Director of Future Electricity Systems at Renewable UK, noted: “These ten steps will clarify and simplify the regulatory landscape for current and future hydrogen projects. In particular, allowing risk taking intermediaries will project to diversity their customer base, making project more viable. The Government should also look for be more flexible in the correlation between renewable electricity input and hydrogen production, moving from a 30-minute basis to monthly to allow greater flexibility of production, while maintaining the low carbon credentials of green hydrogen production.”

The Hydrogen Coordination Forum includes Renewables UK, the REA, Hydrogen East, the North-West Hydrogen Alliance, Scottish Renewables, Hydrogen Southwest, the Carbon Capture and Storage Association, the Decarbonised Gas Alliance, as well as the Midlands Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Network.

The actions were presented to Lord Callanan, Minister for Energy Efficiency and Green Finance at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero as he took to the stage for the address at the HEA 2024 Conference at the QEII Centre in Westminster.

Click here to read more about hydrogen in the UK.