Haskel responds to the UK government’s Hydrogen Strategy

Haskel is pleased that the Government has published its Hydrogen Strategy, which sets out the UK’s hydrogen trajectory for the next nine years and represents a landmark moment for the sector.

 

The UK’s Strategy expects a hydrogen economy to support 9,000 British jobs and unlock £4bn in investment by 2030. Likewise, it predicts that 20-35% of the UK’s energy consumption by 2050 could be hydrogen-based.

 

The Strategy is an important step for the sector and the tangible steps, consultations and R&D funding that it outlines are welcome news for the industry.

 

Commenting on the Strategy, Darran Heath, Global Hydrogen General Manager at Haskel, said:

 

“The Government is right to put the emphasis in this strategy on supporting industry and vehicles to move to clean hydrogen and away from fossil fuels, as this is where substantial early gains can be made to help meet net zero goals. While it is important that the cost of producing clean hydrogen continues to fall to expand the market, the demand we are seeing for hydrogen refuelling stations across the world shows that the appetite is there and growing all the time, and we shouldn’t be waiting around for cost parity before building the right infrastructure to support further adoption in the UK.

 

“In thinking about the net zero transition and vehicles, we tend to think about electric cars, but the opportunity for decarbonisation and reduction of other harmful emissions is much broader. Vehicles used in heavy industry such as construction are not good targets for replacement with battery electric counterparts due to high levels of utilisation making recharging inefficient and because of the power levels required. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are seen as the key solution here, in much the same way that they have proved a good way to overcome the shortfalls that battery electric technology has for bus fleets.”

 

The UK’s move follows the EU’s announcement last month of its ‘Fit for 55’ initiative, a package of proposals aimed at reducing Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. The package targets 40 GW of renewable hydrogen electrolysers and 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen production in the EU by 2030, and aims to ensure that drivers will be able to refuel their vehicles across the continent by planning the installation of a hydrogen refuelling station every 150 km within the EU’s core transport network.

 

To find out more about Haskel hydrogen refuelling solutions worldwide, please get in touch: https://www.haskel.com/en-gb/modals/contact

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