The UK government has confirmed £2 billion in funding for 11 electrolytic hydrogen production projects across the country.
Delivering the 2024 Autumn budget Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the funding and said these 11 projects will be among the first commercial scale projects anywhere in the world.
The 11 projects are:
- Barrow Green Hydrogen
- Bradford Low Carbon Hydrogen
- Cromarty Hydrogen
- Green Hydrogen 3
- HyBont
- HyMarnhan
- Langage Green Hydrogen
- Tees Green Hydrogen
- Trafford Green Hydrogen
- West Wales Hydrogen
- Whitelee Green Hydrogen
These are all projects involved with the first hydrogen allocation round (HAR1) which launched in July 2022.
The 11 projects total 125MW in capacity. When the HAR1 list was unveiled in December last year, the government said they represented the largest number of commercial scale green hydrogen production projects announced at once anywhere in Europe. HAR2, which is now open for applications, could support up to 875MW of low carbon hydrogen.
The government said £413 million of private capital is being invested by the projects upfront between 2024-2026, with around 760 direct jobs created during construction and operation. Beyond this, millions will be spent across a wide range of offtakers – the users of this hydrogen, including industrial processes and heavy transport facilities – who will need to convert their operations to use hydrogen.
HAR1 was part of the government’s ambition to have up to 10GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030 with at least half of this coming from electrolytic hydrogen. This also included having up to 1GW of electrolytic hydrogen and up to 1GW of carbon capture, usage, and storage (CCUS) enabled hydrogen in construction or operation by 2025.
Building up the hydrogen economy and supply chain in the UK is a key element of the country’s net zero plans because it is seen as one the options for decarbonisation of key UK sectors, particularly in 'hard to electrify' industries, and can provide greener, flexible energy across power, heat, transport, and potentially heat in buildings.
Energy security and independence is another factor in the government’s plans: excess renewable electricity can be used to produce hydrogen, which can be stored over time and used to generate electricity when there is less sun or wind to power the grid, with some suggestions that low carbon hydrogen could play a role in UK energy system comparable in scale to existing electricity use by 2050.
That first 10GW of capacity could produce around 60TWh/yr of low carbon hydrogen, providing around 10 MtCO2e/yr carbon savings. If demand for hydrogen in industry, power, heat and transport was at the top end of the estimated ranges, the government said, the country could need up to 40 TWh of hydrogen supply in 2030 to meet this demand domestically.
Stephen Turnock, Professor of Maritime Fluid Dynamics and Head of School of Engineering, University of Southampton, said: “The maritime sector needs to transition to zero carbon fuels and hydrogen looks an attractive solution. The UK developing its own renewable energy based supply chain is an essential component of that transition process and this investment will really help accelerate that process.”
Dr Robert Sansom, member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s Sustainability and Net Zero Policy Centre, added: “It’s vital we gain commercial scale experience of this technology, which is critical to our commitment to delivering net zero. Electrolysis hydrogen in particular is less suited for producing large volumes and costs are currently higher, so this will need to be considered.”
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