Innovators involved in Britain’s pursuit of hydrogen in its green as well as less green variants are today celebrating wins in a government competition.
D-BEIS itemised this morning firms pocketing taxpayer cash as reward for their innovations around the gas, which is increasingly viewed – particularly in its synthesised variants – as a miracle fuel, set to decarbonise at scale industrial processes and heating Britain’s buildings.
A total of 28 projects in all four UK nations receive awards from the second phase of the ministry’s Low Carbon Hydrogen Supply 2 (HySupply 2) competition.
Prominent winners include;
- Sheffield’s ITM Power, awarded £9.2 million to build a next generation 5MW electrolyser stack. Building on their findings from the first Hydrogen Supply programme, ITM are seeking to bring to market their lowest-cost solution for making green hydrogen.
- Cadent Gas, Britain’s biggest pipe operator with 80,000 miles in its network. The Leicestershire firm receives nearly £300,000 to evaluate further how purified hydrogen pumped through the grid can be made suitable for use in lorries and heavy vehicles.
- The National Nuclear Laboratory headquartered in Warrington, will receive £243,000 to devise processes for re-using waste heat from nuke reactors to produce hydrogen.
In its energy security strategy published last month, the Johnson administration committed to extending Britain’s hydrogen-making capacity to 10 GW by 2030. Ministers predict around 12,000 jobs will result across the UK, as well as increasing domestic energy supply, thereby reducing future imports of expensive, climate-wrecking hydrocarbons.
Energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng lauded his department’s handouts.
“The British Energy Security Strategy made clear that we are backing hydrogen not just as a viable source of clean, affordable homegrown energy but as an emerging industry of the future in which the UK can lead the world”, the minister claimed.
“This funding will accelerate the development of this exciting new industry, helping position us as a hydrogen superpower on the global stage.”
A study commissioned by BEIS in 2018 demonstrated that innovation in processes to makde hydrogen could yield considerable cuts in its price.
Full details from D-BEIS here.
