The UK government on August 16, 2021 revealed its UK-wide Hydrogen Economy Strategy indicating a potential £4 bln investment budget, including 9,000 high-quality jobs by 2030, and up to £13bn and 100,000 new jobs by 2050. Following the German Hydrogen Strategy published in June 2020 ( 7 bln budget and 5 GW green H2 production) , Stratégie nationale pour le développement de l’hydrogène décarboné en France (7 bln and 6,5 GW green H2 production), and not part of official EU targets anymore, the UK plan fell short to mandate a target of 5 gigawatts of low carbon hydrogen production by 2030, as renewable organisations had lobbied for, which would mostly power heavy industry, as well as transport and up to 70,000 homes. The Strategy suggests hydrogen could cover 20-35% of the UK’s energy consumption by 2050 and does lay out a balance of blue and green hydrogen in the future, despite a clear instruction from its official climate advisers at the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) and NGO’s to include a pathway for each to 2035.
Photo: Courtsey BIGHIT project