Hydrogen UK has mapped out how the UK’s hydrogen can sector can become a global leader in the hydrogen economy, while still realising all the “immense potential” hydrogen has to offer in terms of driving economic growth and creating jobs – along with helping hit the net zero target.
Hydrogen UK previously forecast that hydrogen could deliver 30,000 jobs annually and £7 billion of Gross Value Added by 2030 in its Economic Impact Assessment. Building on this, it has now published a Supply Chain Strategic Assessment, drawing on how important it is not just to focus on deployment, but investment in technology and supply chains too.
This means being strategic as the UK should not expect to lead in every area. It is a global race to anchor key elements, therefore there are certain areas where there are immediate opportunities and action should be taken, with Hydrogen UK identifying electrolyser stacks, power electronics, hydrogen network pipes and compressed hydrogen storage tanks as “quick wins”. These are areas where the UK already has existing capability and the impact of anchoring these elements would be high.
Compressors and reformers, meanwhile, were identified as an area where there is a case for “concerted effort to anchor” – in other words, the value and impact of attracting these technologies is high, but it will be challenging to deliver. An opportunistic approach should be taken towards carbon capture packages, industrial equipment and industrial burners, while HV transformers, hydrogen gas turbines and air separation units are areas for the longer term.
It went on to set out how to achieve 50% UK local content across the hydrogen value chain from 2030, outlining a series of strategic pillars and fundamentals that need to be followed and acted on simultaneously. Key pillars include targeted, end-to-end funding support helping to scale up UK capabilities in both emerging technologies and advanced manufacturing across the hydrogen value chain and taking action to incentivise partnerships that stimulate industry, government and private finance investments into large production, networks, storage, infrastructure and off-taker projects.
It also includes accelerated targeted public sector finance into UK supply chain companies as this would help them secure the financing options they need to scale; a more strategic approach between the government and industry to attract overseas supply companies into the UK; and balancing the role of non-price factors and competitive allocations, building on knowledge gleaned from the wind sector, to help stimulate the domestic hydrogen market and supply chain.
Supporting these will be the fundamentals of harmonised standards, regulations and accelerated testing of hydrogen technologies; monitoring and evaluation framework which can track the success of supply chain growth; and the accelerated development of a trained workforce to deliver these projects and the wider supply chain.
