Green hydrogen experts call for clear roadmap and vision to scale up UK hydrogen industry

A high-level group of hydrogen experts in a workshop convened by the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering has proposed that the UK government should commit to a comprehensive roadmap for the hydrogen industry. A report from the workshop aims to help policymakers ensure that green hydrogen can fulfil its potentially crucial role in a future low-carbon energy system.

The new report, Towards a green hydrogen roadmap for the UK, follows a workshop comprising expert engineers, scientists and policymakers. It explores the enablers, barriers, dependencies and opportunities for growing the nascent UK hydrogen sector.

Additionally, it highlights the critical factors that need to be addressed to enable the hydrogen economy to reach its full potential. Green hydrogen is likely to be particularly critical for industries that are challenging to decarbonise with electricity, such as steel, chemicals and long-haul transport.

Nigel Brandon FREng FRS, Chair of the Steering Group for Towards a green hydrogen roadmap for the UK, said:

“In partnership with low carbon electricity, low-carbon hydrogen is a vital decarbonisation option for key sectors of the economy in the push to achieve a net zero energy system. Engineering a greener future and a successful hydrogen economy cannot be done in isolation and must consider the UK’s wider economic and infrastructure landscape. A comprehensive roadmap and the development of hydrogen investment zones will enable investment to be better allocated across regional and national infrastructure, boost research and development in key technologies and address ongoing challenges, such as skills provision.

“There have been many first-mover opportunities for countries leading the development of hydrogen technologies and standards. The UK must now create a vision for where it sees itself in the global hydrogen economy and develop the policy environment needed for UK industry and innovation to flourish.”

The report examines the cross-cutting challenges that need to be tackled to develop a successful hydrogen economy, including skills provision and constraints on national resources and infrastructure, managing hydrogen storage, transportation, safety and regulation, leading public dialogue on how hydrogen is used and upscaling technologies to commercial maturity.

It calls for these issues to be considered in the context of the UK’s whole energy system to ensure long-lasting solutions that can help to achieve net zero.

The key areas for government action highlighted by the experts at the workshop include:

• The development of a clear and detailed roadmap setting out an overarching vision of where the UK wants to position itself in the global hydrogen movement
• Support for commercialisation and scale up, including the creation of hydrogen investment zones to enable industry conversion to hydrogen and the development of local, regional and national infrastructure
• Collaboration between local and national government to coordinate hydrogen supply, transport and storage, develop the skills needed for the transition and oversee the regulatory and planning system changes required

Further reading

Green hydrogen is viewed as one of the key ways to provide cleaner fuel and achieve these targets government net zero targets. But in order to fully harness the power of this valuable energy source the government must also kick-start the construction of large-scale hydrogen storage facilities, a topic we explore in our Large Scale Electricity report.

Battcock Professor of Environmental Economics at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford, Cameron Hepburn, explores the economic viability of large-scale hydrogen storage in this blogpost. 

Find out more about the report, Towards a green hydrogen roadmap for the UK.