Trade bodies push Chancellor to develop UK-wide hydrogen strategy
Alliance of trade groups that employs 100,000 people said it was read to invest up to £1.5bn in the sector
A coalition of trade bodies, including Renewable UK, the UK Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association, and the British Hydropower Association have called on the Chancellor to emulate Germany and Canada and "lay the foundations" for a nationwide hydrogen strategy.
The groups announced yesterday that they had formed a cross-industry group dedicated to developing a "clear, strategic plan" that could unlock significant private funding in hydrogen technologies and manufacturing across the country, generating "hundreds of thousands" of green jobs in the process.
The new campaign group, which also counts the Midlands Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Network, Hydrogen East and WyCymru amongst its members, said the nascent industry was ready to invest up to £1.5bn in the sector.
The UK has the potential to become a global leader in renewable and low-carbon hydrogen technology, the alliance said, but it "must move fast to realise the opportunity and achieve maximum economic benefit".
The intervention comes several weeks after a coalition of gas networks and energy suppliers similarly called on the government to prioiritise hydrogen in its recovery plans.
The Treasury did not respond to BusinessGreen's request for a comment, but hydrogen has been tipped to be a beneficiary of the government's economic recovery plans. Last week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in his economic recovery speech that hydrogen technology was an industry where the UK can "lead the world".
The move also comes as the European Commission is expected to today unveil its strategy to kick-start of the bloc's hydrogen economy. Leaked drafts of the strategy have revealed that the bloc intends to make green hydrogen, produced by renewable electricity, its "priority focus". They have also revealed that the Commission hopes to push turnover of the EU's hydrogen economy from €2bn today to €140bn by the end of the decade.
In late June, Germany adopted a national hydrogen strategy that will see the nation spend €9bn on ramping up its green hydrogen production capacity to 5GW by 2030 and 10GW by 2040.
In an interview with BusinessGreen this week, JCB heir and founder of Ryse Hydrogen Jo Bamford argued green hydrogen could provide a huge boost to the UK economy, arguing the country would enjoy a competitive advantage it it harnessed its "abundance of wind and abundance of water" to become a world-leading hub for hydrogen technologies.
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