![]() The appeal of hydrogen for companies with existing gas infrastructure and investments in natural gas is clear. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing in any of the contracts mentioned in this article. Three months earlier, the government underwrote a £400m loan to Johnson Matthey to research sustainable technologies. ![]() In July, Johnson Matthey executive Jane Toogood was named Britain’s “hydrogen champion”, with the task of “bringing industry and government together to realise the government’s hydrogen ambitions”. The hydrogen APPG, which until recently counted Lord Bamford among its members, is funded by a group of large energy producers, network operators and boiler makers, including Shell, EDF, Cadent, Bosch and industrial manufacturer Johnson Matthey. APPGs are informal cross-party groups that have no official status within parliament and have in the past raised concerns over conflicts of interest. The all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on hydrogen was established in 2018 and is chaired by Conservative MP Jacob Young. In his market mayhem-inducing “growth plan”, former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng identified five hydrogen projects he hoped to accelerate, including Cadent’s HyNet scheme to build the UK’s first 100% hydrogen pipeline network in the north-west. They included £9.2m to allow South Yorkshire’s ITM Power to build a 5 megawatt electrolyser stack, which separates hydrogen from oxygen in water using electricity, while Cadent Gas landed £296,174 to examine how to purify hydrogen that has been through the gas grid to make it suitable for use in vehicles such as lorries. ![]() The same month the business department awarded £60m to 28 UK projects through its HySupply 2 competition. In May, a £240m Net Zero Hydrogen Fund was launched “to derisk investment and reduce lifetime costs” of production. Significant state funds have been channelled into exploratory hydrogen projects. The relentless efforts of the industry’s champions appear to be paying off: hydrogen has been mentioned 402 times in parliament so far this year and 595 during 2021, up from 392 in 2019 and just 18 times in 2015.Įarlier this year, the government doubled its production target to 10 gigawatts by 2030. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer views a hydrogen-powered bus during a tour of Tyseley Energy Park in Birmingham earlier this year. Last year, the chief executive of the hydrogen lobby group quit, saying he could no longer lead an association that included oil firms backing blue hydrogen projects, because the schemes were “not sustainable” and “make no sense at all”.Īlthough the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which advises the government, sees the element – the most abundant in the universe – playing an important role in the UK’s transition to net zero, there is a fierce debate over which industries and in what form and quantities it should be employed. However, this relies on the success of the unproven carbon-capture and storage industry, which is in its infancy. ![]() Meanwhile, “blue” methods to produce the gas from fossil fuels require the carbon dioxide released to be captured and stored to prevent emissions. However, detractors argue that creating green hydrogen for home heating is six times less energy efficient than using heat pumps powered by electricity. “Green” hydrogen is produced by splitting water using electricity from renewables, with minimal emissions. Hydrogen is seen as a transition fuel to a future powered by renewables such as wind and solar, allowing existing gas pipes to be used to pump the gas.īut the march of the hydrogen lobby has thrown up many questions – how much will it all cost, are there more affordable ways of getting to net zero, and are vested interests such as the oil industry simply trying to stave off extinction? Their goals are disparate, from gaining support and subsidies for decarbonising energy-intensive industries to convincing authorities to switch to heating homes with hydrogen boilers. In the EU, a vast network of fossil fuel companies, trade associations and other interested parties are putting the case for hydrogen. There are at least 120 paid lobbyists for hydrogen operating in parliament at present, according to estimates from the MCS Charitable Foundation. Last year, he launched H圜ap, a £1bn investment fund designed to back hydrogen specialists from producers to fuelling stations and transport firms.īamford is far from alone in cultivating cordial relations with the government. It has won several taxpayer-funded contracts for green transport, including an £11.2m deal to develop hydrogen fuel cell technology in Northern Ireland. Since Jo Bamford bought bankrupt London bus maker Wrightbus in 2019, the grandson of JCB founder Joseph Cyril Bamford has bet big on hydrogen. Photograph: Scott Heppell/AFP/Getty Images Former PM Boris Johnson trying out a hydrogen-powered car at the industry centre at the University of Sunderland in 2020.
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