Source · Select Committees · Science, Innovation and Technology Committee
Recommendation 7
7
Accepted
The Government should set a 2030 target for green hydrogen production to ensure that full-scale...
Recommendation
The Government should set a 2030 target for green hydrogen production to ensure that full-scale development of green hydrogen is incentivised to take place in the short- term and to make it more likely that the UK develops a green hydrogen production capacity. The Government should be clear whether any targets it sets are for capacity to produce, or are an expectation of how much hydrogen the UK expects to produce and use. The Government should also indicate when grey hydrogen production will be phased out. (Paragraph 66) Hydrogen applications
Government Response Summary
The government doubled the UK’s ambition to up to 10GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030, subject to affordability and value for money, with at least half of this coming from electrolytic hydrogen.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The BESS doubled the UK’s ambition to up to 10GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030, subject to affordability and value for money, with at least half of this coming from electrolytic hydrogen. BESS also set out government’s intention for up to 1GW of electrolytic hydrogen by 2025 alongside an aim to run annual HPBM allocation rounds for electrolytic hydrogen to bring this forward. As indicated in the Hydrogen Strategy Update to Market: July 2022, Hydrogen produced by steam methane reformation without carbon capture (grey hydrogen) is not considered low carbon under the LCHS. For hydrogen to be considered low carbon under the LCHS (for example as a condition of business model support, or under the future hydrogen certification scheme), these producers would need to change hydrogen production method to one that is low carbon, or else retrofit industrial carbon capture technology with support from the Industrial Carbon Capture Business Model (ICC BM). Existing producers of hydrogen by steam methane reformation for use as a feedstock may also choose to become offtakers of newly produced low carbon hydrogen, supported through the HPBM, to displace or supplement the hydrogen they currently produce. The suite of major current and planned interventions, such as the UK ETS, the ICC BM and the HPBM, are expected to be sufficient to incentivise and support the decarbonisation or displacement of hydrogen currently produced by steam methane reformation without carbon capture. Government will continue to engage with existing industrial producers of hydrogen to test this thinking and will consider the most appropriate way of gathering further evidence to inform any future policy development as required.