The UK government announces £60 million awards for innovative hydrogen projects

The UK government has announced £60 million competition which would support innovation in the supply of hydrogen through 28 projects in all four nations of the UK.

The funding has been awarded to 28 projects across the UK, including Scotland, Wales and the north of England and working across a range of different sectors and technologies through the Low Carbon Hydrogen Supply 2 (HySupply 2) competition.

This will support research and innovation in producing and transporting hydrogen, making it a more viable and affordable fuel for powering industry, including energy-intensive sectors which rely on expensive fossil fuels.

It will also drive the UK hydrogen industry forward, reducing costs, bringing new solutions to the market, and ensuring that the UK continues to develop world-leading hydrogen technologies here at home.

Among the 28 winning HySupply 2 projects are:

• ITM Power based in Yorkshire, which has been awarded more than £9.2 million to build a next generation 5MW electrolyser stack, an industrial tool which separates hydrogen from oxygen in a vat of water using electricity. Building on their findings from the first Hydrogen Supply programme, ITM are seeking to bring the lowest-cost green hydrogen solution to the market
• Cadent Gas Limited in the West Midlands, which will receive £296,174 for feasibility work focusing on how to purify hydrogen that has been through the gas grid to make it suitable for use in vehicles like lorries
• The National Nuclear Laboratory in Cumbria, which will receive £242,619 to review and model processes that can use the heat from nuclear reactors to produce hydrogen

In the British Energy Security Strategy published in April, the government committed to boosting UK hydrogen capacity up to 10 GW by 2030. This could create around 12,000 jobs across the UK as well as increasing domestic energy supply, making the UK less dependent on importing expensive fossil fuels in the future.

Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said, “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.”

A study commissioned by BEIS in 2018 demonstrated that innovation in the hydrogen production process could reduce the cost of producing hydrogen considerably. Funding from HySupply 2 will help industry players to realise this goal.

This funding has been awarded after a competitive bidding process to companies that demonstrated their potential to develop feasible and innovative low-carbon hydrogen supply solutions.