International Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the Economy

• Hydrogen Strategy Update to the Market (Aug 2023)

• Hydrogen Strategy Update to the Market (Dec 2022)

• UK Hydrogen Strategy 2021 (Aug 2021)

Updated November 2024

New Government Missions

· The UK government has two new missions: the Clean Energy Superpower Mission and the Economic Growth Mission, which will work together to help the UK achieve its net zero and decarbonisation goals.

· Hydrogen can play a key role in achieving these through creating new jobs in our industrial heartlands, delivering a just transition, and helping achieving net zero.

National Wealth Fund

· The UK Government has announced that it will be setting up a UK National Wealth Fund (NWF). At least £5.8 billion of the NWF’s capital will focus on the sectors announced in the manifesto: green hydrogen, carbon capture, ports, gigafactories and green steel.

· The government will publish an updated framework document, statement of strategic priorities and investment principles document in the coming months.

· The NWF will also publish a strategic plan in the next financial year.

Great British Energy

• Great British Energy is part of the Government’s mission to make the UK a clean energy superpower by 2030 and will work to build robust supply chains across the UK, ensuring the benefits of clean energy projects are widely distributed. It is a new, publicly owned energy company designed to drive the deployment of clean energy, boost energy independence, create jobs and ensure UK taxpayers, billpayers and benefit from clean, secure, home-grown energy. £8.3bn has been committed for Great British Energy over the course of this parliament, which includes amongst many other things, support for hydrogen deployment, unlocking technological pathways, and utilising hydrogen in achieving net zero ambitions.

Launch of the National Energy System Operator (NESO):

· The National Energy System Operator (NESO) became operational on 1 October 2024. With roles across the energy system, NESO will help plan and deliver the integrated system needed to secure the UK’s energy security, net zero and affordability goals.

· The UK Government’s ambition is for NESO to formally take on responsibilities for the strategic planning of hydrogen transport and storage infrastructure from 2026. This will be confirmed in the coming months.

· The NESO has a statutory duty to consider whole system impacts, including the impacts of electricity and gas network planning and forecasting on the production, storage and transport of hydrogen, as well as hydrogen’s impacts on the electricity and natural gas sectors.

· The UK, Scottish and Welsh Governments jointly commissioned the NESO on 22 October 2024 to create a Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP) for the energy system, land and sea, across Great Britain. The first iteration of the SSEP will focus on electricity generation and storage, including hydrogen assets.

Updated November 2024

The £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP) continues to accelerate the commercialisation of low carbon technologies, such as hydrogen. Other support to research and innovation comes from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the Department of Transport, and other public sector bodies.

• Notable recent successes achieved through NZIP include progress on the ERM Dolphyn project under the Low Carbon Hydrogen Supply 2 competition, which is developing a system for producing electrolytic hydrogen from seawater on offshore floating marine platforms with NZIP support.

• The HYDESS project led by E.ON with NZIP Industrial Hydrogen Accelerator funding has completed a major FEED study to demonstrate the feasibility of hydrogen supply for use in steel manufacturing. The project has developed a solution to produce and deliver hydrogen from their Blackburn Meadows site and signed offtake agreements for hydrogen use in steel manufacturing to locations throughout Sheffield.

• The UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) investments continue to support national and international hydrogen research to facilitate key technological developments through the Global Hydrogen Production Technologies (HyPT) Center, the UK Hub for Research Challenges in Hydrogen and Alternative Liquid Fuels (UK-HyRES) and the Hydrogen Integration for Accelerated Energy Transitions (HI-ACT) Hub.

• EPSRC has invested in the Great Western Supercluster for Hydrogen Impact for Future Technologies (GW-SHIFT) initiative. The University of Bath is leading efforts to grow the hydrogen cluster in the South West of England and South Wales. The University of Bath is also leading project ZENITH with GKN Aerospace, tackling hydrogen storage and structure challenges for aircraft.

• The UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (UKRPIF) have funded a £23m Hydrogen Integration Incubator at Cranfield University, which will build a world-class hydrogen aviation ecosystem at Cranfield’s Global Research Airport. It will design, validate and deliver green aviation at scale and shape emerging safety and environmental policies, helping the UK get closer to net zero aviation by 2050.

Updated November 2024 2024

Skills and Education

• Skills England is a new arms-length body that will play a critical part in the UK Government’s growth mission by bringing together key partners to meet the skills needs of the next decade. The body’s first report, Skills England: Driving growth and widening opportunities, was published in September 2024. This highlighted hydrogen as one of the sectors expected to grow in the net zero transition but also highlighted that existing green-skilled workforces will need to grow substantially to meet new demand.

• A new UK Office for Clean Energy Jobs has been created within the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to engage across key groups relevant to the clean energy sector workforce including trade unions and industry. The Office will work closely with Skills England and UK’s Department for Education to ensure the UK workforce has the skills needed to deliver net zero and the Clean Energy Mission, including for hydrogen.

• EPSRC has provided new investment in skills through Centres for Doctoral Training in Engineering Hydrogen Net Zero led by Loughborough University, and Green Industrial Futures led by Heriot-Watt University.

Updated November 2024

No update

Updated November 2024

Funding for Hydrogen Production Projects:

· On 30 October, the UK budget confirmed £2.3 billion in revenue funding (over 15 years) for 11 hydrogen production projects in the UK’s first hydrogen allocation round (HAR1).

· The Net Zero Hydrogen Fund (NZHF), worth up to £240 million, funds the development and deployment of new low carbon hydrogen production to de-risk investment and reduce lifetime costs., There is £90 million in capital grant support being provided to HAR1 projects.

· HAR1 was the UK’s first Hydrogen Allocation Round, designed to allocate revenue support to low carbon, non-CCUS enabled hydrogen production projects across the UK. Funding comes from the UK’s Hydrogen Production Business Model and aims to overcome the cost gap between low carbon hydrogen and the high carbon counterfactual fuels hydrogen will replace.

· The UK also launched a second hydrogen allocation round (HAR2), and the application window of this closed on 19 April 2024. There has been a significant increase in interest since HAR1, both in number and total capacity of projects. The UK Government is currently in the evaluation stage of the process with the aim of awarding up to 875MWs of capacity, subject to value for money and affordability.

Hydrogen and CCUS Funding:

· On 4 October 2024 the PM announced up to £21.7 billion of funding available, over 25 years, for hydrogen and CCUS in two of our major industrial clusters. This will continue to support the UK in being an early leader in hydrogen and CCUS, which are growing global sectors.

Updated November 2024

Hydrogen Regulations:

· The UK Government conducted a stocktake of the development of regulations and standards related to hydrogen combustion in industry and power sectors.

· The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is working to establish a pilot Hydrogen Planning Unit. Its aim is to upskill Local Authority planners on hydrogen so that they feel equipped to take and/or recommend decisions on hydrogen planning applications submitted in their local areas.

· In October this year, the UK’s Environment Agency released guidance on how to comply with emission limit values (ELVs) for hydrogen combustion plant greater than 1 megawatt thermal input (MWth). The guidance is meant to set out what the regulators expect until there is enough uptake for them to understand what is achievable for air pollutant emissions.

· Following a consultation that ended in April this year, the Department for Transport is progressing with the development of legislative options to enable hydrogen powered non-road mobile machinery and agricultural vehicles to be used on roads in Great Britain.

Hydrogen Pipeline Gas Quality Standard:

· We are exploring the need for a 100% hydrogen pipeline gas quality standard.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial StrategyUK Hydrogen Association & Fuel Cells UKScottish Hydrogen & Fuel Cell AssociationUK H2MobilityH2FC SupergenHydrogen LondonIEA Hydrogen

Hydrogen Energy Strategic Framework for the UK: The Government's Response (PDF 36KB) Hydrogen Appliances: Desk study on the development of the supply chain for 100% hydrogen-fired domestic and commercial appliancesHydrogen and Fuel Cells: Opportunities for Growth – A Roadmap for the UKH2FC SUPERGEN Hydrogen & Fuel Cell whitepapers

United Kingdom Statement (PDF); 40th Steering Committee Meeting; Washington DC, USA; 4-5 October 2023

United Kingdom Statement (PDF); 36th Steering Committee Meeting; Seoul, Republic of Korea; Nov 16-17, 2021

United Kingdom Statement (PDF); 32nd Steering Committee Meeting; Seoul, Republic of Korea; Oct 21-25, 2019

United Kingdom Statement (PDF 411KB); 31st Steering Committee Meeting; Vienna, Austria; April 9-12, 2019

United Kingdom Statement (PDF); 30th Steering Committee Meeting; Pretoria, South Africa; Dec 6, 2018

United Kingdom Statement (PDF); 29th Steering Committee Meeting; Kobe, Japan; May 8 - 11, 2018

United Kingdom Statement (PDF); 26th Steering Committee Meeting; Gwangju, Republic of Korea; November 1-4, 2016

United Kingdom Statement (PDF 231KB); 25th Steering Committee Meeting; Berkeley, CA, USA; May 17-20, 2016

United Kingdom Statement (PDF 177KB); 22nd Steering Committee Meeting; Rome, Italy; 2-3 December 2014

United Kingdom Statement (PDF 242KB); 21st Steering Committee Meeting; Oslo, Norway; 19-21 May 2014

United Kingdom Statement (PDF 440KB); 19th Steering Committee Meeting; London, United Kingdom; 23-24 May 2013

United Kingdom Statement (PDF 179KB); 18th Steering Committee Meeting; Seville, Spain; 14 November 2012

United Kingdom Statement (PDF 321KB); 17th Steering Committee Meeting; Cape Town, South Africa; 3-4 May 2012

United Kingdom Statement (PDF 484MB); 14th Steering Committee Meeting; Shanghai, China; 21-22 September 2010

United Kingdom Statement (PDF 47KB); Steering Committee Meeting; Moscow, Russia; 21-23 April 2008

United Kingdom Statement (PDF 17KB); Implementation-Liaison Committee; Reisensburg, Germany; 26 February 2004

Ministerial Statement (PDF 85KB); IPHE Inaugural Ministerial Meeting; Washington, D.C.; 20 Nov 2003

Contact: James Dobing | james.dobing@beis.gov.uk

Alexandra Jenkins - Alexandra.Jenkins@energysecurity.gov.uk