The BEIS Committee has heard proposals for potential inquiries into a range of energy and climate issues, including the future of low carbon hydrogen production.
In early March, the committee launched “My BEIS Inquiry”, inviting stakeholders and the wider public to come forward with issues it should investigate over the course of this Parliament. On 16 July, it heard 11 proposals for inquiries – selected from 200 submissions – including one from Chief Executive of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association (CCSA), Dr Luke Warren, on the future of hydrogen.
Warren outlined the two main ways low carbon hydrogen is produced – through CCS and using low carbon electricity – before noting the UK is “well placed” to become a major producer, owed to its “world class” offshore wind sector and aim of having a world class CCUS sector. Warren further drew on the “very significant environmental benefits” that could arise from the UK developing low carbon hydrogen, including its potential to play an important role in sectors that will be hard to electrify.
Warren suggested an inquiry could explore the interface of low carbon hydrogen production with CCS technology, how a post coronavirus recovery package can stimulate the development of a low carbon hydrogen sector, the use of hydrogen strategies in other countries and a potential UK hydrogen strategy within the industrial strategy.
