A new trade body has been launched, aiming to help accelerate the commercial viability of green hydrogen technologies and ensure the UK remains globally competitive in the development and deployment of innovations in this sector.
The Green Hydrogen Alliance (GHA) is an independent business group representing organisations involved in the supply and use of the clean gas, including Airbus, Air Products, Associated British Ports, London City Airport, Tata Steel, World Kinect. It also features an advisory board including Cranfield University and the Thames Estuary Growth Board.
The development of a green hydrogen sector is a key part of the Government’s strategy to boost UK’s energy security and achieve Net Zero – another of the new group’s missions will be to provide advice on the policy actions required to fully support the roll-out of a green hydrogen economy and ensure the UK does not fall behind other countries, such as Germany and the Netherlands, who have already laid out their own plans to more rapidly drive the sector’s development.
A spokesperson for the GHA said:
“We welcome the Government’s ambitious target of 5GW of electrolytic hydrogen production by 2030, but we must move further and faster on policy if we are to unlock the benefits green hydrogen will bring.”
“Green hydrogen could provide a secure supply of green energy while also helping the UK in its efforts to decarbonise. We look forward to working with policymakers to ensure the country can fulfil its potential in this exciting developing technology.”
Green – or electrolytic – hydrogen is expected to play a key role in both the UK’s transition to Net Zero, and shows considerable promise in sectors, such as heavy industry or transport, where carbon emissions are harder to abate through electrification or other technologies.
A recent report into the potential of zero emissions flight indicated that the entire UK regional fleet could effectively be replaced with safe, certified and zero-carbon emission aircraft by 2040, provided sufficient aircraft production capacity exists matched by sufficient fuel and infrastructure availability.
As well as looking in-depth at the commercial viability of green hydrogen across a number of UK sectors, the GHA will analyze and assess both the economic impact that the development of green hydrogen uses could have on specific areas of the country, and the barriers to the UK becoming a genuine global leader in a technology that could help meet carbon reduction targets, increase energy security and create thousands of new renewable energy jobs across the country.
