At the beginning of June a letter arrived on Rishi Sunak’s desk from UK Hydrogen Strategy Now, a campaign group that Bramble Energy is proud to be a partner of, calling on the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his government to put their efforts into building a hydrogen strategy for the UK that will unlock significant private investment and create thousands of sustainable jobs for the future. In addition, and importantly, aside from that will improve quality of life by achieving the 2050 net zero goal set out by the government in 2019.

Whilst the world has been grappling with the Coronavirus pandemic, perhaps green goals have fallen to the wayside, but this might just be the opportunity we need to achieve a sustainable future. This idea was backed by Climate Assembly UK who recently urged the government to use the opportunity the pandemic presented to fundamentally reshape the economy so that the goals of net zero will be met by 2050 with the majority of panel members feeling prioritizing net zero policies is fundamental & achievable.

In July, the EU announced their own multibillion hydrogen strategy with a three-phase plan – that focuses on green hydrogen production by way of electrolysers with the strategic objective to install at least 40 Gigawatt of renewable hydrogen electrolysers by 2030. The dynamic plan is great news but as we exit the European Union it is vital that the UK paves its own way into a greener future. The EU are not the only ones, with Australia, South Korea, Japan & China all having hydrogen strategies in place. Up and down the UK there are an increasing number of projects & businesses such as Bramble Energy that are ready to provide solutions for achieving net zero. We are not starting from scratch.

There is not one single technology or avenue, “a proverbial silver bullet” that can possibly provide all the answers, but hydrogen technology can be an important pillar to #buildbackbetter in the UK. The many applications of hydrogen is one of its important features – there may be areas where further down the road hydrogen or the technologies used to harness it might not be the most economical answer but the clearly evidenced impact it could have on heavy industry, haulage, flight & marine sectors is not to be discounted. A report recently published by the Offshore Wind Industry Council and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult found that a green hydrogen industry could create 120,000 jobs and generate £320 billion for the economy. A welcome injection of funds in the current UK climate.

Looking at other pathways of energy innovations in the last few decades such as wind power we were slow on the uptake in the UK. Last year alone our installed wind power capacity did not even amount to half of that of Germany’s which with the resources we have is a very difficult pill to swallow as it is already a proven and developed technology that is clean. It may be hard to predict when or if a technology will hit its stride, but the UK risks missing the boat yet again if we hold at the starting line.

Baroness Brown, Vice-Chair of the committee of Climate change has said “We need to show that this is happening before the eyes of the world are on the UK at COP26 – or we’ll risk missing out.”

Parliamentary processes and political acts are slow with The RT Hon Phillip Dunne MP, Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee warning the lack of haste from government for announcing a strategy is actually holding back efforts being made to scale up hydrogen technology across the UK.

Today the question of whether the Hydrogen Advisory Council will develop a fully-funded hydrogen strategy for the United Kingdom will be heard in the House of Lords and we really hope the answer will be yes with a plan to move to the next step instead of more parliamentary red tape.

What do you think the UK’s Hydrogen Strategy will look like? Let us know by sending us a message HERE or at enquiries@brambleenergy.com. Want to keep informed with great articles like this? Sign up to our newsletter HERE and follow us on social media using @brambleenergy.

Bramble Energy Team