The Hydrogen Coordination Forum, which comprises national and regional industry groups in the low-carbon hydrogen space, has set out 10 steps its members see as “quick wins” that would accelerate the growth of the UK’s nascent hydrogen economy.
The announcement, made at the HEA 2024 Conference in London, listed 10 organisations that are members of the Hydrogen Coordination Forum – RenewableUK, the REA, Hydrogen East, the North-West Hydrogen Alliance, Scottish Renewables, Hydrogen Southwest, the Carbon Capture and Storage Association, the Decarbonised Gas Alliance and the Midlands Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Network.
The steps they outlined are aimed at ensuring the UK establishes a hydrogen economy that can contribute to the country’s net-zero emissions goal.
The steps would be taken at the policy level. Indeed, they were presented to the UK Minister for Energy Efficiency and Green Finance, Lord Callanan, at the conference.
The quick wins include: stimulating demand to accelerate overall roll-out; simplifying the planning framework to reduce costs and delays; reconfirming the commitment to hydrogen as part of the national net zero target to bolster investor confidence; and clarifying the role for blending in order to enable project developers to better plan for offtake.
In addition, the group advocated for allowing risk-taking intermediaries under the UK’s second Hydrogen Allocation Round (HAR2) to mitigate producer volume risk; reducing temporal correlation requirements on a temporary basis in order to improve cost competitiveness; including hydrogen internal combustion engines (ICE) in definitions of zero-emission transport in order to maximise economic and employment benefits across UK manufacturing; developing hydrogen refuelling standards to support the roll-out of hydrogen mobility; including hydrogen in the Venture Capital Scheme in order to enhance access to venture capital; and enhancing the role of regions in the hydrogen roll-out.
Barriers and challenges
These policy steps were outlined in a report published by the Hydrogen Coordination Forum, which also examined the most significant barriers to the scale-up of the hydrogen industry and presented each quick win as a solution to a particular challenge.
The group described the barriers as being “in need of immediate policy reform,” as currently they are seen as stalling progress.
The challenges listed included uncertainty around demand levels, the fragmented nature of planning and permitting framework for hydrogen, policy gaps in some areas and a lack of flexibility in policy or regulations in other areas, uneven access to funding and the potential for adverse impacts on private sector confidence.
The Hydrogen Coordination Forum pointed to the speed at which the hydrogen industry has emerged as being behind the existence of the challenges it highlighted.
“Failure to address these ‘quick wins’ to date is indicative of the rapid pace of development in hydrogen,” the report stated. “As practitioners deploy projects, they are experiencing practical, unanticipated challenges which will become increasingly significant blockers as scale-up and roll-out accelerates.”
The group also called for the policy steps it had listed to be treated with a sense of urgency, not only because of the overall pace of the energy transition but also as a means of mitigating against future delays.
“Whilst previous energy transformations have happened over decades, allowing challenges to be addressed over time, the speed of growth that we expect and need with hydrogen means that a more proactive approach will be needed,” the report said. “Highlighting and addressing these ‘quick wins’ now will avoid costly delays later.”
However, even though the group has presented its quick wins to Lord Callanan, a general election looming on July 4 and the opposition Labour Party is leading polling. If the trend continues, the Hydrogen Coordination Forum will soon be having to take its proposals to a new government.
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