The UK is looking to establish itself as a global leader in low carbon hydrogen production. Celia Greaves, CEO of the Hydrogen Energy Association, discusses current challenges and strategies for progress next year.
Following the results of the general election, Labour is already pushing forward with its ambitions to make Britain a clean energy superpower. This includes Chris Stark, former CEO of the Climate Change Commission, being appointed as head of mission control for Clean Power, bringing together experts and officials to clear energy projects troubleshooting, negotiating and clearing.
Their resolve to provide 2030 clean power for the Department of Energy Security and the net Zero to become Prime Minister Kierstorme’s “North Star” will be supported by a UK Energy Plan, National Wealth Fund, UK Employment Bonus, Energy System Reform Planning and reviews of national policies, planning systems and projects.
It is ripe for us to advance the momentum accumulated over the past decade. We have a government that takes delivery seriously, and ambitious, world-leading projects ready to deploy on a large scale, create jobs and save carbon. These pioneers can help reduce costs, ensure safe operation and showcase what low carbon hydrogen has to offer.
However, there are still hurdles and some important steps to take in the coming months and years to violate the promises hydrogen presents.
10 quick wins
The Hydrogen Energy Association has been promoting the UK’s low carbon hydrogen agenda for almost 20 years, with a recent annual conference focusing on ambitions for the next phase.
As part of that, we gathered together ten major hydrogen trade groups (representing thousands of companies in the sector) to highlight 10 “quick wins” to accelerate the growth of the hydrogen economy.
The Midlands hydrogen and fuel cell networks have been gathering to announce these 10 hydrogen actions in the UK – including Renewable Energy UK, REA, Hydrogen East, Northwest Hydrogen Alliance, Scotland Renewable Energy, Southwest Hydrogen, Carbon Capture and Storage Association, Decarbonized Gas Alliance, and the Midlands hydrogen and fuel cell network.
Policy reforms include stimulating supply, simplifying planning frameworks, strengthening investor trust, reducing risk, improving competitive costs, assessing employment benefits, and developing refueling infrastructure standards.
Our ambition for hydrogen is to develop sustainable residential cultivation supply chains, create high-quality jobs, leveraging innovation and expertise to help the industry ensure that the transition to Net Zero brings a variety of economic benefits to the UK.
Green Job
This leads to the urgent need for the overall hydrogen talent pipeline to plug in new skills gaps in the sector.
HEA has been working widely this year with the Hydrogen Skills Alliance, developing strategies to identify gaps and highlight where hydrogen education and training are needed.
The availability of skilled labor within the hydrogen sector is an increasingly urgent consideration. Not addressing this issue now creates a sector-wide shortage and supply chain disruption that inevitably limit the pace at which the UK’s hydrogen economy can develop.
Therefore, we sought the funding of sufficient funding for upskills and retraining, collaboration with education initiatives and institutions to create clear career transition paths, and the fund for the National Hydrogen Skills Training Programme to ensure a pipeline of new and existing talent.
Development of a hydrogen workforce is unique in that it needs to be built from scratch at an unprecedented pace, but it has the advantage of skill transferability from the existing oil and gas industries. This shows that the energy industry needs to create an approach tailored to people and skills.
However, 84% of employers point out that there is insufficient number of hydrogen skilled workers, and 61% claim this will affect their ability to scale up, so it is essential for the government to invest in ways that will strengthen their pipeline.
Hydrogen fueling
Earlier this year, we released a new paper, “Hydrogen Refueling Infrastructure: Standardization.” It provides a set of recommendations that will help the sector work more collaboratively to overcome the hurdles to recruitment and deployment.
This specifically examined one of the pressing challenges outlined in our 10 Quick Winners on how range, power, payload and refueling time paves the way to hydrogen as the decarbonization solution for HGVs where the most important HGVs.
On the UK’s Net Zero journey, transport is one of the main regions where hydrogen is considered an important route to decarbonization. Establishing a refueling infrastructure is essential to supporting hydrogen fuel transport. Our paper examined the status of hydrogen refueling standardization and identified delivery gaps while providing recommendations to accelerate progress.
The development and implementation of technical standards based on standardization, good health and safety practices is a consensus among technical experts, and a complex landscape with a range of various national and international organizations with active and varying rates of progress. This paper provided extensive details on current regulations and the breadth of actors.
Key fixed points identified include the current absence of protocols for refueling HGVs, the need for design guidelines and component certification and testing standards across different pressure classes, and the lack of a consistent approach to training.
Future outlook for low carbon hydrogen
Every time we draw a picture of the current hydrogen landscape in the UK and draw attention to future challenges, we need to consider how far we have come.
The UK is a world leader in the development of low carbon hydrogen, and its abundant incredible projects can help to significantly contribute to maintaining its position.
For example, our member BP is developing a large low carbon hydrogen project at Teesside. In contrast, our member Protium’s Pioneer facility is used in testing hydrogen-powered buses in South Wales.
Meanwhile, another of our members, Ulemco, has converted commercial vehicles running on hydrogen fuel, recently raising over £5 million with “Dual Fuel Solutions” (H2CED), and member Geopura has secured £56 million from outside investors for its hydrogen fuel generator.
The even more positive news is that the work begins with the first 11 hydrogen production projects that received government funding for construction and operation. These projects may include:
It will kickstart the low-carbon hydrogen economy across the UK, promote the government’s objective of deploying up to 1GW of electrolytic hydrogen production capacity by 2025, and 10GW of low-carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030, providing hydrogen to the end-user sector range.
Funding calls for the next round of projects are open. The contract is expected to pay off in early 2025.
In short, low carbon hydrogen
Currently, government support is needed to support the supply chain of hydrogen production, storage and transportation, and fuel the choice of users, and despite extensive support from technologies, including energy-intensive industries, long-distance transportation, and power generation, has slowed around the world.
However, the future of hydrogen never seemed bright as the UK was built on a strong foundation and a new government was at the helm.
Certainly, hydrogen fits the government’s growth agenda and plays an important role to play in the Clean Energy Superpower mission. We have already made positive progress with the Prime Minister double his commitment.
The low-carbon hydrogen policy continues to be developed at a pace and paths are being established. In short, we are walking on a walk and ready to continue jumping the hurdles to reach the finish line.
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