Hydrogen as an alternative fuel needs early government action

The Climate Change Committee has released a report into hydrogen, concluding that hydrogen is a credible energy option but its role depends on early government commitment to develop the UK’s industrial capability.

The CCC’s Hydrogen in a low-carbon economy report finds that hydrogen can make an important contribution to long-term decarbonisation if combined with greater energy efficiency, cheap low-carbon power generation, electrified transport and new ‘hybrid’ heat pump systems, which have been successfully trialled in the UK.

The potential of hydrogen as a zero-carbon energy source has always been recognised, yet in previous assessments it has been impractical or overly expensive to roll out at scale. The report finds hydrogen could replace natural gas in parts of the energy system, where electrification is not feasible or is prohibitively expensive, for example in providing heat on colder winter days, industrial heat processes and back-up power generation.

The report offers a new impetus for early government action. It suggests that significant volumes of low-carbon hydrogen should be produced in a carbon capture and storage (CCS) ‘cluster’ by 2030 to help the industry grow. Hydrogen should be produced for applications that require no major infrastructure changes (e.g. power generation, injection in to the gas network and depot-based transport).

Government must support the early demonstration of the everyday uses of hydrogen in order to establish the practicality of switching from natural gas to hydrogen. This requires the development of pilot projects for transport, industry and buildings uses.

A strategy should be developed for low-carbon heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) which encourages a move away from fossil fuels and biofuels to zero-emission solutions by 2050. Decisions about how to achieve this are required in the second half of the 2020s. Therefore, demonstrations of hydrogen HGVs will need to be made soon.

There is low awareness amongst the general public of reasons to move away from natural gas heating to low-carbon alternatives. There needs to be public engagement on the future of the UK’s heating choices. However, the window to engage with people is closing.

However, hydrogen is not a ‘silver bullet’ solution. The report also explores some commonly-held misconceptions, highlighting the need for careful planning.